Busselton City budget confirms 7 per cent rate rise with expenditure totalling $163.9m

Busselton City council has rubber stamped its 2024-25 budget which includes rates hikes of 7 per cent and expenditure tipped to total $163.9 million. Operating expenditure is budgeted to total $110.7m as employee costs ($40.6m), materials and contracts ($31m) and depreciation ($26.8m) making up the bulk of costs. An additional $53.2m will be spent on capital works, including $10.2m on roads renewal works, $7.8m for the acquisition of strategic land and $5.1m on parks, gardens and reserves work. According to the budget, the City of Busselton will rake in income of $123.1m with more than half of that, $66.3m, coming from rates revenue while the next biggest contributor is $26.6m from fees and charges. Some of the projects include lighting renewal at Dunsborough Oval skate park, coastal stabilisation works, and the reconstruction and widening of North Jindong Road. Leftover monies from projects not undertaken last financial year total $22.2m. Saltwater, which has faced delays, is one such project with $7.58m unspent from last year. Most residents and businesses will be hit with an average 7 per cent rates rise, but holiday home owners will have rates increase by 15.14 per cent on their additional properties. Inclusive to the rate rise is one per cent being dedicated to a new sport and recreation fund as a $100m recreation centre relocation looms as a possibility. A sum of $20.4m will come from capital grants, subsidies and contributions. Busselton Airport will get a further $3.3m of investment by the city, with $1.2m dedicated to expanding the public carpark. Busselton mayor Phill Cronin said the budget was fair for all ratepayers. “This is a budget focused on continuing to provide all the high-quality services we offer our local community, which support an enviable standard of livability, whilst also focusing on anticipated future infrastructure needs,” he said. “We recognise the need to plan for future population growth in a careful and considered way and have balanced the budget accordingly. “We also recognise the critical need to ensure the city, as an organisation, is financially sustainable. “This has meant implementing the rate increase required to meet the increasing costs of service and facility provision in today’s market and enabling us to start catching up after successive years of lower than CPI rating.” The passing of the budget did split councillors but was ultimately passed in several separate parts. The first part involved acknowledging community feedback and adopting several financial statements. It passed five votes to three, with councillors Jodie Lee, Mikayla Love and Jarrod Kennedy — who had foreshadowed an alternative with a slightly smaller rates rise of 6 per cent for industrial and commercial properties — voting against. There was also a point of confusion during debate on the second part which involved adopting a number of rates-related measures. Before voting on all of the measures, deputy mayor Anne Ryan successfully sought to pull a measure to set a 7 per cent per annum interest rate on outstanding rate balances from the vote. Once the rest of the measures were unanimously passed, Cr Ryan began speaking against the measure, but it appeared she thought it was to set the rate rise. The problem was the council, including Cr Ryan, had already passed through the rate rise in the prior vote. The remaining two parts passed unanimously without debate.