Council’s 2025/26 Budget 

We have summarised the financial information on Council’s website, identified the key numbers and presented them below in an easy to read format.

The financial data relating to Council’s operations are separated into three distinct areas – the General Fund, which covers the bulk of Council’s operations, the Water Fund and the Sewer Fund. The 2025/26 Budget for these Funds is shown below in $ millions –

The Rates amount in the General Fund budget includes $8m for the Special Rate Variation yet to be approved by the Independent Pricing Tribunal. The surplus results in the Water and Sewer Funds cannot be transferred to the General Fund.

The General Fund operating loss of $17m is of serious concern. The table below shows a breakdown of the income and expenses for the 2025/26 Budget compared to the Actual results for 2023/24. The projected results for 2024/25 are not available yet, but the Budget included a Net Loss of $16m.

Although the operating result improves from a loss of $36m in 2024 to a loss of $17m in 2026, half of the improvement is due to one-off sales of Council-owned properties. With expenses growing at an annual rate of 7% and rates limited to annual increases of 4%, significant ongoing operating losses can only be addressed by a reduction in employee costs or requests for further significant increases in rates.

Although some other councils are also experiencing financial difficulties, perusal of the data published by the Office of Local Government (OLG) for 2023/24 shows that Shoalhaven Council (SCC) total employee costs appear to be significantly higher than similar councils.

• The OLG divides the 128 NSW councils into categories such as Metropolitan, Rural and Regional Town/City
• Eleven larger Regional Town/City councils, including SCC, make up Group 5
• Seven of the councils in Group 5 (Coffs Harbour, Mid Coast, Port Macquarie, Tweed, Maitland, Port Stephens, Shellharbour) provide a useful reference group for comparisons.

The SCC General Fund employee costs total in 2023/24 was $93m (see above). The average of the seven councils in the reference group was $57m.

Shoalhaven has a larger population then the other seven councils so a ratio of employee costs per capita is more informative. The ratio for SCC in 2024 was $848, which was 30% higher than average of $645 for the seven reference group councils.

Council’s serious financial predicament is due to decisions made and budgets passed under previous councils. Those budgets were voted against by the new Mayor, and she and the new councillors now have the task of rectification.

A table showing OLG comparison data can be viewed here

The Berry Forum Committee
http://berryforum.org.au/