In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been raining in Noosa. A lot. But what I’ve been more concerned about is the cash – our cash – that’s been raining on Noosa Council and gathering in large, hidden puddles around our Council offices in Pelican Street.
Where is all this money coming from, and why does our Council need so much of it? Surely not for a rainy day some time in the distant future.
The Annual Report of the last financial year of the 2020-2024 Noosa Council (our previous Council) has been released. We can now see the audited statements of the period covered by their four Budgets.
The standout is the huge increase in capital grants from the state and federal governments in the last 4 years. In part this is due to Covid and disaster recovery funding, much of it still to be spent and accounted for.
Council general rate revenue listed in successive Annual Reports tells us something about Council’s attitude to “struggling families and businesses doing it tough.” Perhaps they believe that rhetoric, but the figures tell a different story; a story of a Noosa Council awash with money and adding more of it in reserve as a result of unnecessary rate increases.
THE STASH IN RESERVE FOR WHAT?
The $46 million pile of cash the Stewart Council inherited in 2020 was more than enough as a prudent risk reserve. And yet those Councillors – including some still sitting around the table today – agreed to extract an additional $37 million from ratepayers, particularly during the years of covid and increased cost of living difficulties.
The recent Annual Report media release tells us there is “an operating surplus of $7.4 million”. Then we’re told this shows the Council is operating efficiently. It does no such thing.
It shows they didn’t need to increase general rates by $5 million that wasn’t needed and simply ended up in a growing bank account. It cannot “serve the community” sitting in bank accounts.
That’s what’s been happening year after year – the surplus goes in the bank account as shown by the graphic above, that’s how it got to this extravagant total of $83 million.
By the way, the latest Annual Report adopted by Councillors says there was an operating deficit of $7.4 million. Surely if all of them actually read the report someone might have raised the alarm over this typo, or whatever it was.
The big question now is whether the current Noosa Council is going to continue raising (and holding onto) ever increasing bags of ratepayer money.
For those ratepayers who believe they can make better use of their own money than have it sitting sterile in a bank account, the signs are not good. The current Council’s first Budget appears to add another $5 million to the general rate levy for the current financial year.
Don’t be surprised if another ‘operational surplus’ is proudly announced in 12 months’ time, adding to the $83 million pot of gold from past years. Taking more money than you need from ratepayers is not something our Councillors should be proud of.
