Budget preparation for next year commences
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Posted on March 14, 2023
Council has added a new step in developing its annual budget for 2023-24. This year, a focus has been placed on engaging councillors and key stakeholders earlier to improve understanding of the budget process and factors that impact council’s finances.
Councillors attended the yearly ‘setting the scene’ workshop in February to review economic conditions and emerging issues that need to be considered when setting next year’s budget. This meeting set the groundwork for the upcoming budget process and also reviewed the current year’s budget and long-term financial plan. Council must adopt a new budget each year by the end of July.
At the 8 March 2023 general council meeting, fees and charges for next year were adopted and will be effective from 1 July 2023. To view the unconfirmed minutes in relation to the adoption of next year’s fees and charges go here.
‘Adopting user fees early in the budget process provides customers of council’s services with advance notice of changes in next year’s fees,’ said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sharon Houlihan.
On 8 and 9 March, councillors attended two information sessions for commercial and rural stakeholders, new to this year’s budget process, as well as participating in their first budget development workshop for 2022-23. Councillors generally undertake five workshops in the months leading up to the adoption of each year’s budget.
At the first budget workshop, councillors had an initial look at the draft operating budget for next year.
At the two information sessions, stakeholders had the opportunity to ask questions and obtain a better understanding of how a council budget is prepared and the factors that councillors must consider in setting the budget. The presentation is available for public viewing on our website here.
‘It was the first-time council has held sessions like these, with these pre-budget information sessions being one part of improved communications about our budget process,’ said CEO Sharon Houlihan.
‘Stakeholder attendees, councillors and officers all took something away from the engagement, and council has additional feedback and insights, from the perspective of those who attended, to work with when preparing this year’s budget,’ she continued.
Topics discussed at the pre-budget information sessions included:
The role of councillors as decision-makers in setting council budgetsProperty valuations and how they are undertaken (state government service)What rates are and how they are calculatedCouncil’s financial challengesRating statisticsCouncil’s financial future‘In the coming months, councillors and officers will continue working closely to develop the budget over a series of different workshops,’ said Ms Houlihan.
‘There are many factors which councillors must consider, when setting the council budget each year. We were pleased to share these factors with stakeholders at these pre-budget information sessions.’
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