01 April 2013

Budget Preparations 2013/14

Tomorrow evening is the first briefing for the new budget. Last year we attended a briefing where the manner in which staff set their budget claims and get them into the full budget was explained. Too often we, as Councillors, really only get a chance to discuss the budget initiatives (from both staff and Councillors) rather than the entire budget. This year we are likely to set the total rate amount rate in line with inflation plus 1% (this being for growth; 2 for 1 developments, extensions and apartments). This should allow for some initiatives but not all those suggested. Don and I added quite a few that we wanted in Goodwood South, these being;
  • increased line marking
  • William St steetscaping including footways
  • money to allow for the completion of some initiatives from the LATM
  • Masterplan for Goodwood Oval and Milswood Lawns
  • additional monies should the Greenways project fall short of resident expectations.
  • repair of the Page Park pergola
  • replacemnt of gym equipment in Page Park
Fortunately, for us many of these are in the budget as part of the overall budget and do not need to be included as initiatives.Only the William St street improvements, the gym equipment  and the Masterplan still need to be added to the budget. The amount requested for the LATM was $80,000.
The suggested footpath replacements do not reflect what I believe to be the need and will need to be again negotiated with staff.

1 comment:

  1. When will councils wake up to the reality of basic mathematics? Unless residents' incomes are also increasing by inflation plus 1% (and as a self-funded retiree mine certainly isn't) the impact of council rates will become increasingly massive. At some point council has to grapple with the unavoidable situation that it has to financially live within residents' means - not simply allow for "growth" that we can't fund. We all want things that we can't have and that applies to desired council services as well.

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