Loddon continues history of cash surplus in 2020/21 budget
Published on 18 June 2020
On Tuesday 23 June 2020 Councillors will consider the adoption of the 2020/21 Loddon Shire Council budget.
The budget forecasts an accumulated cash surplus of around $100,000.
In 2020/21, more than half of Council’s $23M income is expected to come from sources other than rates and charges. These sources include grants and interest income.
From a $33M expenditure budget, almost $10M is depreciation on Council’s assets. Most of those assets are property, infrastructure, plant and equipment valued at over $383M.
Over $7M is allocated to capital works including:
- $400K on building asset renewals
- Over $2M on local road reseals and construction
- $350K on urban drainage
- $500K on the Lake Boort precinct
- $750K on community planning projects
The funds for capital works come from a variety of sources including grants ($2.5M), Council cash income ($2.7M), Council savings ($1.5M), and sale of assets.
Council adopts a responsible approach to funding capital projects by saving smaller amounts each year toward larger projects. This helps to ensure the project can be delivered without increasing the rates to an unreasonable level. These amounts, together with savings on projects throughout the year, are held in reserve (savings) so they can be drawn on to fund the difference between the cost of the project and the amount of funding available. This practice results in a deficit being shown in income statements but an accumulated cash surplus overall.
After the preparation of the budget, Council was also advised of almost $2m in grant funding to employ over 30 people, whether they have lost their jobs due to the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) or have been without work for a longer period of time.
A number of other funding announcements have been made and Council is awaiting the detail of those announcements. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.