Budget Delivered Around Liveability And Growth

Mackay Regional Council held a special meeting last week to move a budget that has been described as “strong” and “sensible”.

With the region’s liveability and livelihood the focus of the $302 million budget, ratepayers will see a 2.5% increase across all categories which equates to an extra $81 a year for the average ratepayer.

This increase is lower than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which was 6 per cent in March 2022 and Mackay Regional Council Mayor Greg Williamson says that is a credit to the staff and directorate of council.

“(The budget) recognises the current cost of living pressures that all of us are facing,” said Mayor Williamson.

“No services have been affected at all, but to keep it at a rate rise of 2.5 per cent when the CPI for QLD is running at 6 per cent when we expect inflation to be 7 per cent at the end of the year, when the majority of councils are running somewhere between 4 and 6 per cent rate rises, I’m very proud of what our council’s been able to achieve.”

Mayor Williamson says council committed to a rate rise of no more than CPI which was 2.5 per cent when the budget process was started six months ago.

“We always said we’ll keep it at CPI but it’s just not palatable, in my view, in this community, to go over a 5 or 6 per cent increase,” he said.

The budget will also see $104 million invested into capital works, with $58.5 million to go towards renewing existing assets, $18 million towards upgrades and $27.5 million towards new assets.

“We are continuing to build on signature projects that are on the table and progressing well,” Mayor Williamson said.

Some of the region’s signature projects to get a share of the budget include the Mackay waterfront precinct, the Northern Beaches Community Hub and the Pioneer Valley Mountain Bike project.

“Ground-breaking works commenced in March for Mackay Waterfront’s Riverside Revitalisation project, which we know will be a game changer for our region,” Mayor Williamson said.

“And with the adoption of today’s budget, we will see an additional $6.2 million put towards River Street’s service road and further riverside improvements.”

Two Queensland Government Works for Queensland partially funded projects are also included - $3.8 million for Seaforth Esplanade masterplan implementation and $1.7 million for Woodlands District Park.

Mayor Williamson says most of these are long-term projects with more funds to be allocated in future budgets to continue development.

“Our signature projects that we’ve actually embarked upon, a lot of them are long-term projects but we’ve been funding them now for a number of years and they will start to come into fruition very rapidly over the next couple of years,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Karen May says the council serves a vast region with a small rates base compared to many other local government areas.

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