BATHURST Regional Council has unveiled its draft 2020-21 budget, which has been described as "business as usual" despite the current economic and health crisis.
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The budget for the next financial year has been prepared under tight financial circumstances, influenced by factors such as rate pegging, cost shifting, the take-up of additional services and tasks that don't generate revenue being imposed on council.
However, council's director of Finance and Corporate Services, Aaron Jones, said the budget has been prepared without recognising any effects related to COVID-19.
That means that money allocated in the budget may have to be moved around to address the impacts of the pandemic as they arise.
"The budget has been prepared on a business as usual position on the assumption that coronavirus does not exist, but as we have disclosed in the report, obviously it does exist and it will have an adverse effect on our budget, but unfortunately a lot of those adverse affects we still don't know," Mr Jones said.
"... As impacts of the coronavirus become more clear, I will then be providing subsequent reports to council, one, to highlight the impact, and then secondly to identify ways to respond to that individual impact. If it is a direct financial impact, in that we have to reallocate money for whatever reason, then it may be that a project gets delayed for a particular period of time or potentially that a project gets canned altogether."
A couple of major projects are planned for 2020-21.
At the top of the list is work on the Central Tablelands Collections Facility.
The $4.6 million facility was announced in January 2019 and will be jointly funded by council and the NSW Government.
The budget for the next financial year lists a $2.6 million allocation to start work on the project that, once complete, will provide storage for museums collections from across the region.
"It would see the commencement of civil works. A lot of the money initially is to be spent on the detailed construction designs and drawings in the first year, so the site would then have to be prepared," Mr Jones said.
"You'll probably see some some excavation and levelling of the site, and then probably a substantial completion of the exterior."
The interior works are expected to be carried out during the 2021-22 financial year, when there is anticipated to be a budget allocation of the additional $2 million.
Another multi-million dollar project set for 2020-21 is further work at the football precinct on Hereford Street, Jack Arrow Park.
More than $5.18 million has been allocated to four elements of the project: the construction of a car park, two fields, a roundabout and lighting for the new fields.
However, Mr Jones said some work will be delayed as council has already decided to hold off on constructing the new fields until the city's water situation improves.
"The two-field element of that project has been delayed until we can get some improvement in our water situation, but the other elements can proceed," Mr Jones said.
"We do have the fields flagged for next year's budget as well, but work on those won't commence until we have some confidence in our water security position."
Other projects in the budget include the replacement of the timber deck of the Evans Plains Creek Bridge on Ophir Road, which is a $1.3 million job made possible with a grant from the NSW Government, and $46,215 to do a study on raising the Chifley Dam wall.
The budget also proposes a 2.6 per cent rise in general purpose rates, the maximum council can increase rates by.
However, rates could increase more than this in the coming years.
In his report, Mr Jones has advised council to be mindful "of the continual squeeze on the council in its ability to raise revenue through rates".
Council has a maintenance backlog of more than $102 million, and may need to consider a special rate variation to get on top of it without reducing service levels.
Should council decide to increase rates above the rate peg limit, it will need to make an application for a nominated per cent over and above the rate peg amount.
The application would be assessed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) and the process would take about 12 to 18 months, meaning the earliest a special rate variation could be introduced is in the 2021-22 budget.
The draft 2020-21 budget will be up for discussion at Wednesday's council meeting, after which it is expected to go on public exhibition.
