{"id":150096,"date":"2016-06-29T19:07:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T09:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=150096"},"modified":"2020-10-12T11:48:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T01:48:05","slug":"council-to-cut-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/06\/29\/council-to-cut-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Council To Cut Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell and Council CEO Gary Wall plan to reduce the SBRC’s debt by $2.4 million over the coming year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 27, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

The South Burnett Regional Council will cut its debt by $2.4 million in the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

Mayor Keith Campbell said today a lot of concern had been expressed about the Council\u2019s financial position during the March elections, where some candidates had exaggerated the real debt position and questioned the Council’s sustainability.<\/p>\n

He said people who’d expressed concerns about the debt had forgotten that it amounted to less than five per cent of the Council’s $865 million asset base.<\/p>\n

They had also overlooked that it had been run up to build important community infrastructure which is expected to have a working life of anything from 60 years to a century.<\/p>\n

“Our debt at June 30, 2016 will be $42.9 million, excluding the loan borrowed for the Memerambi historical subdivision which will be repaid by that subdivision’s property owners,” Mayor Campbell said.<\/p>\n

“The majority of this debt is for our waste water treatment systems ($13.3 million), upgrades to our region’s water systems ($11.4 million) and our bridge replacement program ($8.6 million).<\/p>\n

“The remaining $9.6 million is a collection of smaller loans, many of which were borrowed by the old Councils for things like the Nanango Aquatic Centre or similar projects.”<\/p>\n

Council CEO Gary Wall said a claim made by former South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann in mid-March this year that the Council’s debt was $38 million was true at that time.<\/p>\n

But since then, the Council had drawn down an extra $4.9 million for its ongoing bridge replacement program.<\/p>\n

This was a borrowing that had already been approved and budgeted for.<\/p>\n

The Mayor said now that the region’s most urgent infrastructure projects had been funded, the Council did not propose to take out any new loans this financial year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will focus on completing its infrastructure projects and paying down debt instead.<\/p>\n

In 2016-17 the Council will make capital and interest repayments of $2.4 million, which will reduce total debt to $40.5 million by June 30 next year.<\/p>\n

The Mayor also downplayed concerns ratepayers were footing a heavy interest bill because of the debt.<\/p>\n

“Council will pay slightly more than $2 million in interest charges this year, but at the same time we will earn about $1.7 million in interest from our capital reserves.<\/p>\n

“The $300,000 difference is the real amount of interest we are paying on our debt this year, and this works out to about $17 a year per rate notice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South Burnett Regional Council will cut its debt by $2.4 million over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[1131],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil To Cut Debt - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South Burnett Regional Council will cut its debt by $2.4 million over the next 12 months.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/06\/29\/council-to-cut-debt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council To Cut Debt - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The South Burnett Regional Council will cut its debt by $2.4 million over the next 12 months.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/06\/29\/council-to-cut-debt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-29T09:07:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T01:48:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20160929debt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/06\/29\/council-to-cut-debt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/06\/29\/council-to-cut-debt\/\",\"name\":\"Council To Cut Debt - 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