Council to establish a revenue taskforce

Blue Mountains City Council will establish a revenue taskforce to focus on new ways of generating income to support the City.

The taskforce – to be jointly chaired by Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill and CEO, Dr Rosemary Dillon – will find new revenue sources that do not place any extra burden on ratepayers.

“The Council has made significant improvement to its financial position over the last 10 years, but faces significant financial challenges going forward, particularly relating to the impact of natural disasters,” Mayor Greenhill said. 

“Council currently has the largest ever expenditure on capital works in the City and in the last 12 months Council has redirected more than $1.5 million to an escalated road-fixing problem, to address extensive damage caused by flooding.

“But due to climate change, and more natural disasters, Council expects to have increasing issues with infrastructure into the future.  We need to find more revenue that doesn’t come from our ratepayers.” 

CEO, Dr Rosemary Dillon, said: “Council is already implementing a program of continuous improvement in its business operations and has withstood multiple shocks in recent years. This new taskforce will focus on identifying ways of generating increased revenue to support the expenditure of the City, particularly in the context of likely increased natural disasters.”

A report will go to the February Council Meeting, setting out the framework for the taskforce.

The taskforce, that will include Councillors and Council senior staff, will report to the Council within six months of its commencement.

The action aligns with the Delivery Program 2017-2022 and objectives of the Key Direction of ‘Lead’ that state: “Council lives responsibly within its means and strengthens its financial sustainability”.