Under section 94 of the Local Government Act 2020, the Council must prepare and adopt a budget for each financial year and the subsequent three financial years.

The four-year ‘rolling’ Budget must:

• give effect to the Council Plan
• contain financial statements in the form required by the regulations (and accounting standards)
• provide a general description of services and initiatives to be funded
• identify major initiatives from the Council Plan that will be priorities for each financial year
• for services funded in the budget, the prescribed indicators, and measures of service performance
• total rate income and information on differential or fixed components of rates
• a statement on whether Council intends to apply for an increase or variation to the rate cap.

The four-year budget will outline how resources will be allocated across initiatives, programs, services, and capital works, as well as financing and debt redemption/servicing. It also provides a comprehensive outline of all income to be derived from rates, fees and charges, grants, and other revenue.

Key components of the proposed 2024/25 Budget are discussed below.

The proposed 2024/25 Budget is available for download via the document library to the right of this page.

The budgeted operating result is a surplus of $184,000. The operating surplus is primarily due to the receipt of $4.356 million in grant income to fund capital projects.

The Council’s reliance on external grant income is highlighted by the operating deficits projected in the 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years where only a conservative $975,000 annually in capital grant income is projected.

Rates and Charges are budgeted to raise $23.041 million a $813,000 increase from the 2023/24 forecast.

Based on an increase of 2.75 per cent in line with the Victorian Government’s Rate Capping system, General rates and Municipal charge will raise $18.040 million.

Revenue in lieu of rates is budgeted to be $416,000 in 2024/25.

The total number of assessments is budgeted to increase to 8,495 from 8,366 in 2023/24. The Residential (Benalla) rating category increases by 80 and the Vacant Land (Benalla properties) rises by 43 to 246.

Waste charges increase by 5 per cent and will raise $4.534 million.

User fees will raise $3.546 million in 2024/25 a decrease of $72,000 primarily due to a reduction in budgeted developer contributions.

Operating grants will contribute $6.588 million of revenue in 2024/25. Full receipt of the Council’s Financial Assistance Grant allocation ($4.770 million) is budgeted to be received in 2024/25, however, based on previous years’ experience a significant portion of this funding may be pre-paid in the 2023/24 financial year.

Budgeted capital grants total $4.356 million. Significant budgeted capital grants comprise $2.712 million from the Victorian Government for the Benalla Art Gallery Redevelopment project, $975,000 in Roads to Recovery funding and $567,000 from the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Fund.

Employee costs are budgeted to increase by $188,000, including a $55,000 increase in Superannuation Guarantee payments, to $13.817 million.

At the end of the financial year, the Council’s cash position is budgeted and forecast to be:

2024/25: $15.883 million

2025/26: $16.171 million

2026/27: $15.705 million

2027/28: $12.539 million

No new borrowings are budgeted for 2024/25. Borrowings decrease from a forecast $2.215 million at 30 June 2024 to a projected $641,000 at 30 June 2028.

Capital works total $11.016 million in 2024/25. Key areas of expenditure include:

• Buildings $3.162 million
• Roads $2.186 million
• Waste management $1.350 million
• Plant, machinery and equipment $1.160 million
• Drainage $972,000

New asset expenditure is $2.822 million, asset renewal $6.567 million and upgrade $1.627 million.

Capital works are funded by Council cash $6.659 million and grants $4.357 million.

New major capital projects budged for in 2024/25 include:

Major plant replacement $930,000

Reseal program $901,000

Gravel re-sheet program $852,000

Drainage strategy $534,000

Benalla Indoor Recreation Centre roof renewal $450,000

Drainage – The Culdesac $400,000.

Capital works expenditure of $3.040 million is budgeted to be carried forward from 2023/24.

The proposed 2024/2025 Budget can be downloaded from the Document Library to the right of this page.

Submissions close 5pm Thursday 30 May.