June 26, 2025
The Federal Government’s decision to bring forward a half-payment of Financial Assistance grants has overturned Toowoomba Regional Council’s Budget forecast – released just last week.
The TRC was this week paid $2.8 million of its 2025-26 FA grant which it had expected to receive after June 30.
Toowoomba Mayor Geoff McDonald said receiving the early payment with very little notice was a difficult outcome for all local governments.
“While its very good news we will now likely flip our 2024-25 $1.4 million deficit into a $1.4 million surplus,” he said.
“It’s an absolute circus that money we thought we would receive next financial year has now been received this year and therefore needs to be accounted for in this year’s actuals.
“This gets to the heart of the challenges local governments are facing in trying to balance financial sustainability with delivering essential services to the community while not knowing when or how much funding we’ll receive from other levels of government.
“It’s an issue we’ve been trying to highlight for some time and in October we will propose a motion at the Local Government Association of Queensland conference calling on the State and Federal Governments to provide local governments with a five-year rolling schedule of FA grant payments in an effort to stop this very thing occurring.
“We also continue to be hampered by the low quantum of our FA grant which was once as high as $19 million, now just $5.5 million.”
- Related article: Feds Bring Forward FA Grants
