Community pitches endorsed in Budget

Six community projects valued at more than $200,000 were this week endorsed for funding through Strathbogie Shire Council’s Pitch My Project initiative.

Now in its third year, Pitch My Project allows the community to pitch ideas to Council for inclusion in its annual budget.

For the 2023/24 Budget, Council took community input to the next level, and created a participatory budgeting exercise to put the decision making into the hands of the community.

Locals pitched ideas that aligned to the Strategic Focus Areas in the 2021/25 Council Plan.

The projects scoring the highest in each category, and endorsed for funding, at last night’s Extraordinary Council Meeting are outlined in the table below:

Mayor, Cr Laura Binks said the aim of the Pitch My Project initiative was to ensure community input into the development of the Draft Budget.

“It means we’re developing our Draft Budget in partnership with our community and ensures we’re funding the projects and initiatives that matter to them,” Cr Binks said.

“Since the project was established, Council has funded more than 20 projects right across the municipality.

“This year we established clear guidelines, to guide the community through the application process and we created a participatory budgeting exercise that put the decision making in the hands of the community.

“We wanted to ensure meaningful community input. To show our commitment to genuine community engagement.”

To ensure the engagement exercise was fair Council established hard copy survey stations in townships throughout the Shire and in some categories looked at the score as a percentage of population so smaller towns were not disadvantaged.

During the engagement period 15 submissions were received to the Draft Budget and 572 contributions were received for Pitch My Project (425 through www.share.strathbogie.vic.gov.au and 147 through township survey stations).

Also endorsed at Tuesday’s Council Meeting was the 2023/24 Budget which maintains financial stability while recognising the challenging financial environment faced not only by Council and the ongoing impacts of cost-of-living pressures being experienced by the community.

“We recognise that inflation remains high, materials and labour remain in short supply and that there is still much to do to rebuild our infrastructure and buildings following the October 2022 flood,” Cr Binks said.

“In preparing the 2023/2024 Budget, we have considered these factors alongside the need to ensure we continue to deliver a long term sustainable financial position.

“Council and our administration have worked hard to minimise the increase to the overall rate base in recognition of the pressures faced by our community. I am pleased to say we have set the overall increase to our rate base at a 3 per cent increase for this new financial year.

“Our goal was to carefully consider our funding priorities to achieve an overall rate rise below the Fair Go Rates system rating cap set by the Victorian Government of 3.5 per cent.”

Waste collection and disposal charges will also rise by 3 per cent in recognition of the pressures faced by the waste sector in terms of fuel prices and increases in State government landfill levies.

The 2023/2024 Budget provides for operating expenditure of $34.4 million on services with new initiatives including:

• Funding dedicated to the repair of roads, bridges and culverts following the October 2022 flood event.
• Additional resources for our Operations team to support road, culvert and drainage repairs and maintenance.
• Scoping for traffic and parking management options in the Buckley Park precinct, Nagambie.
• Funding for a number of footpath projects and funding for the review of our Tracks and Trails Strategy to improve connectivity and physical activity across the Shire.
• Continued investment in our streetscape improvement programs.

The Budget also provides for a $12.99 million capital works program, together with $3.49 million carried forward from 2022/2023.

“I want to sincerely thank all who gave their time to participate in the 2023/24 Budget process,” she said.

“There is no doubt we have produced a better budget because of our community’s input.”

→ Click here to view the 2023/24 Budget

→ Click here to view the 2023/24 Budget and Pitch My Project Engagement Report