{"id":298169,"date":"2021-04-29T17:25:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T07:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=298169"},"modified":"2021-04-29T17:25:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T07:25:05","slug":"council-scraps-consultant-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/04\/29\/council-scraps-consultant-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Scraps Consultant Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Burnett Regional Council has axed a proposal to hire a consultant to advise it on “Budget repair”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Cr Kathy Duff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 28, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Dafyd Martindale<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public reaction to a proposal by the South Burnett Regional Council to bring in an external consultant to effect “Budget repair” has led to a change of heart.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s General Meeting, Councillors reversed a decision taken earlier this month to hire a consultant on a 12-month contract and voted to use their own skills instead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision will save ratepayers a six-figure sum and could also mark a sea change in the Council’s use of consultants.<\/p>\n

Cr Kathy Duff told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> she thought Council relied too much on consultants and believed several other Councillors held the same view.<\/p>\n

Councillors knew what was happening in their communities, she said.<\/p>\n

So if economies needed to be found to get Council’s Budget back into the black by 2023-24, they were best placed to effect changes that would negatively impact as few people as possible.<\/p>\n

This year, SBRC expects to hand down a deficit of $4.65 million, and Mayor Brett Otto has warned this could balloon to more than $8 million next year if remedial action isn’t taken.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But with Council rates already high, there is little appetite for excessive rate rises over the next few years to plug the finance gap.<\/p>\n

This means the only alternative is to reduce expenses and services – something all Councillors have shied away from since the 2008 amalgamation – and try to increase revenues at the region’s tourist parks or find additional profit-making ventures.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Otto said achieving a turnaround in Council’s finances would require courage from his fellow Councillors, but he was confident they would rise to the challenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He then moved an amended motion from the floor that Council work with CEO Mark Pitt to develop a strategy for a “path to profit” by 2023-24.<\/p>\n

Work on the strategy will commence in July with the final strategy presented for adoption next June.<\/p>\n

This motion was passed unanimously.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/h2>\n

Mayor Otto will be joining other Mayors from around the nation at the Australian Local Government Association’s annual conference in Canberra on June 20-23 to press for more Federal funding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As it has for many years, the ALGA is expected to call on the Federal Government to increase Councils’ share of Commonwealth tax income to 1 per cent.<\/p>\n

At present, Councils receive slightly more than half a per cent and in Queensland, the Auditor-General recently warned that up to one-third of the State’s 77 councils are at risk of becoming insolvent if urgent action to fix their finances isn’t taken soon.<\/p>\n

Most of these are rural, regional and Indigenous councils with rates bases too small to viably support the services most urban Australians now take for granted.<\/p>\n

The Mayor will be accompanied on his trip by Deputy Mayor Gavin Jones, Cr Kirstie Schumacher and possibly one of Council’s three General Managers.<\/p>\n

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