Financial summary
Council's financial position continues to remain sound. A summary of our performance is outlined below, while detailed information is included within the Financial Statements and Performance Statement sections of the Annual Report 2017-18.
Operating position
Council achieved a surplus of $39.39 million in 2017-18. This surplus compares favourably
to the original budget surplus of $26.90 million. The favourable variance is primarily due to higher than budgeted monetary contributions of $1.67 million (mainly open space), statutory fees and fines of $1.92 million and early receipt of the 2018-19 Victoria Grants Commission grant allocation of $2.26 million. In addition, there were savings in other expenditure of $1.04 million, employee costs of $2.50 million and materials and services of $2.82 million, offset by a loss on disposal of property, infrastructure, plant and equipment of $2.19 million.
The adjusted underlying surplus of Council – after removing non-recurrent capital grant income, monetary contributions and non-monetary asset contributions – is $28.85 million. Sustaining a surplus underlying result is a necessary financial strategy in order to fund the renewal, upgrade and new asset programs for the $3.81 billion net community assets under our control, as well as providing capacity to meet our loan repayments.
Financial expenditure
During 2017-18, Council delivered the following services for every $100 that they spent:
Where your rates go | 2017-18 actual |
---|---|
Capital Works and Priority Projects | $32.15 |
Environment and Waste Management | $13.04 |
Parks, Gardens and Sportsgrounds | $9.96 |
Health, Aged Community and Family Services | $11.86 |
Roads, Footpaths, Safety and Drainage | $5.14 |
Planning and Building | $5.82 |
Library, Arts and Cultural Services | $7.27 |
Local Laws Enforcement | $5.58 |
Leisure and Recreation and Civic Centres | $2.09 |
Engineering and Traffic | $2.37 |
Communications and Customer Service | $2.17 |
Rates and Property Services | $2.02 |
Economic Development | $0.53 |
Note: Includes an allocation of corporate services, governance, risk management, building maintenance and public lighting across these service areas. Excludes operating expenditure for five externally managed recreation centres.