A Q&A session prior to the council meeting seemed to have left councillors slumped in their seats, looking either drained or angry.

Mayor Kristy McBain called the budget a balancing act, citing the strain on resources dealing with the Tathra fires which could be expected to continue for the next 18 months, rate capping and staff cost increases.

She said council needed to work with the state government to enable an offset for NPWS and Forestry Corp, neither of which pay any rates but both of which make up the majority of land in the shire.

”Metro councils do not face same issues. They have bugger all in transport costs. They don’t do water and don’t do sewers. Our biggest concern is trying to provide diverse assets to a spread community. We need to do a balancing act. Right now this is the best we can get for 18/19. It’s not that bad, all regional councils are facing problems,” Cr Kristy McBain said.

But councillor Tony Allen was concerned that no roads would be turned “from yellow to black”.

“After 18/19 there’s no money for reseals,” Cr Allen said.

He said surveys had shown sealing currently unsealed roads was important to residents and said that since 2013 the number of unsealed roads that were sealed had dropped dramatically as the shire opted to focus on maintenance.

Council has made asset maintenance a key plank in its budgets since 2012 after receiving the Percy Allen Report, which highlighted council’s infrastructure backlog problems. The report suggested a 20 year period in which council focus on bringing assets, such as roads, to a higher maintenance level to ensure continuity of service. Cr Allen voted for the asset management plan in December 2011.

However it is likely that $500,000 will be revoted towards resealing existing sealed roads after an estimated underspend of $900,000 in the maintenance and operations budget for 2017/18. The remaining $400,000 will be put towards work on council’s ailing Bega works depot.

A motion from councillor Cathy Griff will see South East Arts and Mumbulla Foundation funding secured, although she was unsuccessful in getting $40,000 put back into the festivals and events budget as well. 

This item is expected to come back to council after the first quarterly review with Cr Griff looking to secure any unspent money from this year for festivals and events.

Councillor Sharon Tapscott also got agreement for a parking ranger trial outside of the tourist season.

“If we’re going to trial an extra parking ranger I don’t want this to run into the tourist season,” Cr Tapscott said. 

Councillors also agreed that the Bruce Steer Pool amenities, Barclay Street Sportsground renewal, North Tura Trail improvements and Wallaga Lake Trial renewal that had been budgeted for 2017/18, but not completed, would be resolved in 2018/19.

Councillor Mitchell Nadin was concerned about the future of the council’s finances and warned that “without rate increases this council is on its way to bankruptcy”.

“This year alone we are behind $500,000 in wages, $800,000 across all accounts and we’re told the increase in rates is $330,000. So we’re going backwards,” Cr Nadin said.

But Cr Kristy McBain said rural councils were about more than rates, roads and rubbish.

“Local government has to pick up the slack. We do things like childcare too. In any year the budget is a compromise. 

“The additional $500,000 to be put into the reseals program will keep it at the 2017/18 level,” she said.

“On wages we took back all the sewage treatment plants which meant we needed the staff to run them but then didn’t need to pay a contractor to do it for us,” Cr Kristy McBain explained.

The motion to approve the budget was voted  by Crs McBain, Griff, Seckold, Tapscott and Dodds with Crs Allen, Bain, Fitzpatrick and Nadin voting against.