Our 4-year Council Budget

The 4-year Budget 2023-2027 was adopted by Council on Tuesday 20 June 2023.

This year's total budget is $217.3 million and includes the delivery of important services such as road resurfacing, maintaining footpaths, upgrading parks and playgrounds, as well as services for our older residents, MCH kindergarten, immunisation and much more.

Some of the highlights of the budget are:

• $36.9 million towards the Fawkner Leisure Centre Redevelopment
• $32.1 million towards upgrading several early-years facilities over the next 5 years. This includes works at Oak Park Kindergarten, Derby Street Children’s Centre and Pascoe Vale in 2023/24.
  
• $29.0 million to continue delivery of the Saxon Street Community Hub project
• $20.6 million will go towards improving parks, open space and streetscapes
• $15.9 million to roads and carparks renewal and maintenance
• $7.2 million to commence the construction of Hosken Reserve redevelopment
• $4.5 million towards footpaths, bicycle paths and transport infrastructure
• $278,000 towards 6 Community budget initiatives. Our community suggested projects and voted on their preferred ideas.

Ideas from our community

The budget has been influenced by community ideas from our community engagement that commenced in November 2022. In the first stage of engagement we called for community ideas and received 26 projects and initiatives that met the criteria. In the second stage we ran a community voting program, including 6 pop-up sessions, we had a total of 654 people vote on their top three projects. Council has allocated $278,000 towards a number of initiatives that have been included in the proposed budget:

• $80,000 for shade structures program for playgrounds and parks
• $33,000 towards Take the First Step Merri-bek (domestic violence prevention)
• $10,000 for nesting boxes
• Accessible tennis facilities and reserves $100,000
• $50,000 towards drinking fountains in shopping strips
• Increasing bins around parklands $5,000

Rates

Average rates in 2023-24 are proposed to increase by 3.5% to fund Council's operations and projects. This increase is in line with the rate cap set by the State Government.

This will see average rates increase by $1.22 per week or $63.48 per year.

The Waste Charge

The 2023-24 Waste Charge is proposed to increase by 68 cents per week or $35.15 per year.

The increase is mostly due to the introduction of the glass recycling and food and garden organics services to all households and the increasing State waste levy.

We're seeking community feedback on the proposed 4-year Council Budget

You can also visit our3 customer service centres and any Merri-bek library to view the proposed budget in hard copy and give your feedback. Make sure you have your say by Sunday 21 May 2023.