TRC 2024–25 Budget Adopted
Tablelands Regional Council adopted its 2024–25 budget today, which includes $133.2M in capital and operational expenditure.
Mayor Rod Marti presented the budget, the first for the newly elected Council, noting the Councillors were cognisant of the cost-of-living pressures experienced by the community.
‘We are fully attuned to cost-of-living pressures and have kept our revenue levels on par with what is needed to deliver essential services to community,’ Mayor Marti said.
‘It’s not easy to continue to deliver critical services to a growing community when the cost of doing business, and the cost of every activity and investment continues to go up, sometimes exponentially, however this is the task.
‘Like the last two years, the Tablelands continues to experience extraordinary economic growth — growth that continues to lead the entire FNQ Region,’ said Mayor Marti.
When referencing the $133.2M budget, Mayor Marti referenced $49.1M in capital investment, $84.1M in operational spending and a forecast of an operating deficit of $341k or -0.4%.
‘On the capital side, there is $14.3M for roads, bridges, footpaths and drains, $15.8M for water improvements, $9.9M for road repairs due to flooding, $3.0M for parks, gardens and precincts, and $1.4M for community buildings and amenities.
‘Ootann Road has carried forward to this year with $4.0M for upgrading TRC’s final section of this critical inland route.
‘Our operational and capital budget is supported by $21.7M of State and Federal funding including $45k for the Atherton Tablelands Rail Trail, $750k for the Ravenshoe netball courts, $25k for the barbecue replacement program and $122k to update our library resources.
‘Millaa Millaa Falls Precinct Improvement Plan will continue this year with $350k for infrastructure upgrades and there’s $400K for Herberton’s Battery Park.
‘Malanda will see upgrades to its water security with construction of a 3ML reservoir at a cost of $7.6M.
‘Of the operational budget’s $84.1M, there’s $23.4M for roads and bridges, $14.0M for water, $8.9M for waste, $4.4M for parks and gardens, $12.2M for corporate and community buildings, $8.3M for wastewater and $2.8M for community, events and tourism.
‘TRC’s current borrowings are $15.3M, of which $11.0M is a new loan against our Ravenshoe and Millstream water reservoir, treatment plant and pipeline,’ Mayor Marti said.
Mayor Marti went on to explain that rating categories are mixed because land valuations have dramatic variations within and across all categories, and that valuation averaging and adjusted rate charges have been applied to ensure only the revenue required to deliver services was collected, resulting in a 3.6% increase in general rates revenue.
‘With the recent significant increases in land valuations by Department of Resources, Council implemented valuation averaging to lessen the impact of increasing rates as much as possible.
‘We have continued to apply averaging to the rating valuations for the 2024–25 year and moderated the rateable value by averaging property valuations over three financial years.
‘Averaging as a tool delivers a level of equity when applying rates across rating categories, however no rating tool provides all the answers.
‘This does not mean that everyone’s rates will increase by 3.6%, some will be higher and some lower because the significant range of changes made to valuations continues to unfold through averaging.
‘A further 1% revenue increase is budgeted within rates and charges that reflects our region’s growth projections.
‘Across residential (category A), multi-unit (category B) and rural-residential (category M) properties the budgeted revenue increase is 3.6%, and these categories represent 85% of ratepayers.
‘Rates from primary production (category F) and grazing (category G) properties also have a budgeted revenue increase of 3.6% and, again, due to varying valuation movements, some will pay more and some will pay less.
Mayor Marti spoke of the organisation embarking on renewal and new water installations across almost the entire TRC footprint and the need for water users to contribute to building and maintain our critical water assets.
This has resulted in the water access charge increasing by 3.5% or $22, while the water consumption charge will increase by 22c/1000 litre. The importance of an ongoing focus and investment in our water assets cannot be understated.
In wrapping up, Mayor Marti acknowledged that this Council is getting things done.
‘For a Council of this size, we’re doing everything we can to build and maintain our critical assets as well as establish the living amenity of our towns for the 21st century.
‘In addition to our major investments in water upgrades at Ravenshoe, Millstream, Malanda and Atherton, and our major commitments to urban and rural roads, bridges and related infrastructure, we have important investments in public spaces.
‘Herberton, Yungaburra and Millaa Millaa are just three examples of unique towns we must continue to support.
The Priors Creek Development is about to embark on an exciting new stage that will include an urban plaza for markets, a 1000-person amphitheatre, new link road and parking, shelters, lighting, landscaping, new toilets and shared pathways.
‘This area will become the critical CBD connection to the Atherton Forest Mountain Bike Park and I acknowledge the support of the Queensland Government in making this formative stage a reality.
‘Simultaneously we are working on commercial development opportunities and seeking private investment in short-stay tourism accommodation and units.
‘This will not only help to meet the demand for more housing in our region, but also provide high-quality tourism accommodation, with benefits across the entire local government area.
‘We will also engage with the Mount Garnet community regarding the swimming pool, and the Malanda community in relation to the Patrick English Pavilion.
‘Council understands the importance of those assets and will play a lead role with both communities as part of the very busy 24–25 program.
Mayor Marti reminded the community not to forget the programs and projects TRC delivers every year.
‘We manage over 1800km of roads, mow more than 7000ha of grass, clean barbecues around 3400 times, respond to over 18,000 customer requests, collect 7000t of waste and deliver over 2,800,000kL of water.
‘TRC is a key growth enabler and we’re providing the best service we can from the resources we have, for our community.
Mayor Marti went on to thank his fellow Councillors and staff for their contribution to the budget.
‘Delivering a local government budget of any size is a challenge, but to deliver one just after being elected as a Councillor for the first time is a major undertaking.
‘I thank every councillor, both new and returning.
I’d also like to acknowledge the Senior Management Team and in particular the Manager of Finance and the Finance Team for the efforts they made in constructing the budget over many months.
‘I also acknowledge our CEO for bringing his leadership, experience and oversight to the critical plan that the budget represents,’ Mayor Marti concluded.