Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart says council is focused on easing residents’ cost-of-living pressures, after releasing a budget for 2023-24.
Cr Stewart said community input, from a liveability survey and corporate plan consultation, had influenced the budget, which is open to feedback.
“We know our residents are struggling with cost-of-living pressures and we’ve worked very hard in developing this draft budget to ensure that for 63 per cent of ratepayers on the minimum general rate, the rise in their annual rates bill will come in at 5.5 per cent, which is well below CPI,” she said.
“We have also applied a freeze on levies to help minimise the financial impact on ratepayers.”
Cr Stewart said more than 80 per cent of ratepayers would have an average increase below CPI.
“It’s been a significant challenge to put together this budget in the face of a 7.4 per cent CPI increase, significant land valuation increases and the rising cost of doing business,” she said.
“This is very much a back-to-basics, no-frills budget aimed at maintaining the high level of service our community expects, with improvements and new initiatives where we are able to.
“We’ve worked really hard to mitigate the flow-through of land valuations, resulting in about 4000 property owners seeing a reduction in their rates compared to the previous year.
“This is due to the mechanisms we’ve used to manage the volatile land valuations, which rose by an average of 62 per cent across the shire.”
Eligible pensioners are set to receive the full pensioner rebate of $115. Previously it was a sliding scale depending on eligibility.
“This is a cost of $80,000 to the budget but it’s council’s commitment to helping out those more vulnerable in our shire,” Cr Stewart said.
Other key initiatives of the $132 million budget were:
- increased investment in shire-wide parks, trails and roads maintenance;
- ongoing affordable housing advocacy and policy implementation;
- continuation of the Go Noosa free weekend bus initiative;
- continuation of the Living Well Noosa program;
- progression of the Destination Management Plan;
- support for small businesses with the implementation of the Small Business Friendly Council program;
- ongoing science-based water-quality monitoring program;
- ongoing vegetation mapping review to identify critical bushfire hazards and inform conservation; and
- new waste recovery initiatives to reduce recoverable materials going into landfill and eliminate illegal dumping.
“These are the areas our residents told us to prioritise in the feedback we received as part of the recent corporate plan community consultation process plus the responses to the liveability survey,” Cr Stewart said.
The mayor said the budget included an ambitious $39 million capital works program that would deliver a number of big-ticket items.
These include replacement of the Lawnville Road bridge in the hinterland, the Garth Prowd bridge renewal, Eumundi Noosa Road Resource Recovery Centre expansion and Ross Crescent stabilisation works.
“Running in tandem with the capital program is our $80 million-plus QRA (Queensland Reconstruction Authority)-funded disaster recovery infrastructure program following last year’s floods, so it’s a big year for construction,” she said.
Community and environment groups are also in for a boost with an increase to council’s grants programs.
Residents can review and have a say on the draft budget at Noosa Council – Your Say until June 4.
Residents can discuss the draft budget face to face with their local councillors at a budget feedback session on Monday, May 29, from 10am to noon at Noosa Council, 9 Pelican Steet, Tewantin. To reserve a place email budget@noosa.qld.gov.au.
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