Councillor Column With Councillor Clay Bauman

Council handed down our 2023-24 budget on June 30 and a 2 per cent increase for owner occupiers is a lower rate rise than what could have been.

Like everyone else, Council is feeling the increased costs of living.

Our research expects about 7.5 % inflation for this year, so the good news is that Council is absorbing most of the hikes, rather than passing the full amount onto ratepayers.

There are other increases in water, sewage, and rubbish as we move towards full cost pricing of these services on a user pays model, so remember, the less you waste, the less you pay.

It should also save people from paying rates for expensive services they don’t specifically benefit from.

Rubbish, recycling, and landfill remediation remains a big cost item and I have joined the regional waste committee and continue to put in extra work on finding solutions that can save us all money.

I have read hundreds of pages of reports and policy, including from previous years to help me better understand my first $200 million budget.

Amongst that I saw that last year residents in their own homes had a higher rate rise than other residential properties, so I was happy to endorse the decision of all Councillors to approve a lower rise for them in 2023-24.

The capital works papers outline over $15 million dollars for Cannonvale and Paluma Road, not including another $2 mill for the sewage plant. I think this sets us up for major improvements in services and infrastructure in the coming years.

There are a number of exciting new projects in the pipeline for Cannonvale which we are hopeful of confirming in coming months and will potentially see Division 2 receive more than four times better funding allocation than in last year’s budget.

The Whitsunday Policy on rates says they are based on equity and benefit.

I think there is more we can do towards this going forward and I hope to be stating my case again for the 24/25 budget.

With our new Chief Executive Officer running the business of Council this financial year, I expect to see a better return on investment for ratepayers, better operational outcomes and while change in Local Government sometimes feels like trying to turn the Titanic, I think that analogy shows just how important it is to have the whole region on a safe and steady course to success.

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