The Draft Budget for 2025/26 is currently on public exhibition for the community to review and provide feedback.

Unfortunately, we are unlikely to receive many responses for two principal reasons.

Firstly, the majority of ratepayers don’t visit the Council website for casual browsing, and if they do, it’s not easy to find the relevant information.

Secondly, for those who do locate it (titled Hilltops Community Strategic Plan 2042), the document is not particularly easy to understand or interpret.

In summary, we are predicting a deficit in the General Fund (which covers rates, roads, rubbish, libraries, pools, etc.) of $10.51 million.

Income is forecast to be $47.95 million, sourced from:

• Rates: $21 million

• User fees: $10 million

• Grants (State and Federal Government): $14.48 million

Expenses are forecast to be $58.46 million, comprised of:

• Employee costs: $22.05 million

• Materials and contracts: $14.03 million

• Depreciation: $20.88 million

• Other: $1.4 million

Following the General Fund, the document reports on the separate Water and Sewer funds for Young, Harden and Boorowa.

The Young Water Fund is projected to produce a surplus of $1.08 million this year, building on the $8 million in reserves already on hand.

As a result, Council voted not to increase water rates for Young residents in the coming financial year.

The Harden Water Fund is showing a tidy surplus of $440,000, which adds to the existing reserves of over $7.5 million.

The Boorowa Water Fund is showing a very slight surplus of $7,800 (before capital grants).

Clearly, Council will need to address this situation moving forward, as there are only $1.2 million in reserves and no surplus funds being generated for major upgrade work.

The Sewer Funds for Young and Harden are predicted to generate a surplus of approximately $500,000, while the Boorowa Sewer Fund is forecast to generate a $24,000 surplus.

Reserve levels are as follows:

• Young Sewerage Scheme: over $4.0 million

• Harden Sewerage Scheme: $3.2 million

• Boorowa: $600,000

All three are low, given the size of the towns and the age of the infrastructure - especially Harden’s.

The budgets are then all combined into a Consolidated Budget, including the Regional Waste Group.

The Consolidated Budget forecasts a deficit of $7.18 million, before capital grants from State and Federal Governments of $19.46 million are taken into account.

Once these are included, the budget shows a surplus of $12.6 million.

It is worth noting that depreciation (which is a non-cash item) of $24.3 million is also included in the expenses.

While it is very important that depreciation is accounted for, as it estimates the annual amount of money needed to put aside to replace assets in the future, it does tend

to “distort” the financial statements.

The Capital Works Budget for the coming year is projected to spend $35.7 million including:

• Road upgrades: $15.8 million

• Water replacement works: $3.7 million

• Sewer: $1.1 million

• Waste: $1.5 million

• Stormwater drainage: $6.6 million

Since starting the Financial Improvement Strategy 18 months ago, Council has made significant progress in improving its financial position, which is very pleasing.

However, there are still very limited excess funds available.

We must remain vigilant and ensure we operate in a financially prudent manner while doing our best to support the community.

Deputy Mayor Tony Flanery