City budget short on wriggle room

THE City of Greater Geelong’s budget crunch is showing no signs of relief as councillors reviewed a “sobering” result from the past financial year.

The city presented its financial statements for 2021-22 last week, which showed an unexpected surplus in its bottom line due to early grant funding and savings in staff costs.

However, financial portfolio chair Anthony Aitken said the headline figure concealed a financial squeeze that would likely affect city for years to come.

“Anybody who reads this report will see the difficult financial position that not only the City of Greater Geelong but any government is in at the moment.

“We have no discretionary spending capacity in our budget, and our financial statements show that

“To be able to respond the to the demands that the community is presenting before us, to be able to respond to the demands that officers are presenting in terms of policy positions and implementing new ideas is extremely hard.

“But I do commend the council group for its commitment to a break-even position to the city.”

Cr Aitken said the lack of spare cash would affect the city’s capability to fund any infrastructure for the coming Commonwealth Games, with the city set to rely on state and federal governments for support.

He said a review of the state government’s rate capping system, which determines the limit each year that councils can raise their rate revenue, could help the city collect more money for its community infrastructure and services.

The operating result showed a $10.6 million surplus for 2021-22 after the city had budgeted for a slight deficit ahead of the financial year.

This was due largely to early grant funding from the federal government for Commonwealth Games delivery ($7.65 million) and under-budget staff expenditure ($7.3 billion).

The report showed that the city’s asset base had skyrocketed in value to be worth $4.2 billion, up $835 million from 2021, following updated assessments from Victoria’s Auditor-General.

The financial report was part of the city’s preparation for its 2021-22 annual report, that it is due to release later this year.