Tuesday, May 10, 2011

2011/12 Glen Eira draft Budget

At last nights special meeting Council considered the proposed draft budget for advertising and for public submission.

An amended version from that published in the agenda was passed by a narrow majority instead sets rates at 6.5% and downsizes the sports ground drought-tolerant grass program from four to two ovals this year.

I spoke in favor of the proposed draft that would have set rates at 6.95% - with many future and past projects like GESAC needing to be adequately funded I argued that we need to grow our revenue base in a modest, measured way to meet these funding challenges. The compounding affect over time is also very significant and importantly the Strategic Resource plan (SRP)as adopted the previous meeting was based on the higher rate.

Major budget items in the draft include:
GESAC $7.58m to complete the sports and aquatic facilty in Bentleigh
Duncan Mckinnon new pavillion $5.5m (out of 8.8m total)for construction
Streetlight Conversion to energy efficient T5 globes $1m (out of 2m total)
- this is a two year program that will significant reduce council emissions with a payback period of 6/7 years on the back of rising electricity costs.
Roads, Drainage and Footpaths rolling programs maintained at $4.95m,$3.29m and $1.73m respectively
Bicycle Strategy $446k to undertake high priority actions-the SRP allocates $400k for the years after to complete the 2m strategy.

All details of the draft budget noting the above amendments can be found in the lower right links section.

Public submissions very welcome and close June 9th.

No comments:

Post a Comment