predicted an $8 million deficit<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe reversal was largely due to early receipt of Federal Assistance Grants that had been budgeted for the current (2023\/24) financial year, which will likely impact this year’s results.<\/p>\n
“Savings measures” implemented in recent months also contributed to the better-than-expected outcome.<\/p>\n
Mayor Trent Sullivan said the result was not an indicator that the city’s financial challenges were behind it.<\/p>\n
“It does come with potential impacts on this financial year’s result,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ll note that whilst we have a surplus, it is slight compared to our overall budget… that means we must be financially prudent going forwards.”<\/p>\n
Cr Anthony Aitken called the bottom line an “accounting surplus” that didn’t accurately reflect its position.<\/p>\n
“The reality is that our underlying operations are actually running at a deficit,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The $4.6 million surplus actually came from very hard and tough decisions that the council group made in consultation with the former acting CEO [Kaarina Phyland], and that actually delivered $6.2 million worth of savings.<\/p>\n
“We did essentially receive additional financial income grant income from the federal government as well. When you add those together, that’s about $8 million.<\/p>\n
“So if those activities had not occurred in the last five months of this financial year, we’d actually would be announcing a deficit tonight.”<\/p>\n
Cr Aitken said he looked forward to continuing work to address the city’s bottom line with newly arrived CEO Ali Wastie.<\/p>\n
During 2022\/23, the city delivered $174 million worth of capital works, including $122 million in new assets and just over $50 million in renewals.<\/p>\n
The city is also now responsible for $4.7 billion worth of property, infrastructure, plant and equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE City of Greater Geelong have warned that difficult financial times remain ahead despite it announcing a surprising surplus for the past financial year. Councillors ratified the city’s audited 2022\/23 financial statements last week, which showed an operating surplus of $4.686 million. The figure is a substantial turnaround from forecasts in early 2023 that predicted […]<\/p>\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":85178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-85177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCity back in black, but challenges remain - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The City of Greater Geelong has announced a surprising surplus for the past financial year, but councillors have warned that difficult financial times remain ahead. 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