Councils lift but watchdog warns debt strugglers

THE financial performance of councils has improved but the state’s public sector watchdog has warned a number of them to lift their game.

Auditor-General Rod Whitehead has released the Tasmanian Audit Office’s yearly report into the finances of the state’s 29 councils.

The report says the underlying surplus for the state’s councils rose by $5 million last financial year, with 23 of the councils either archiving underlying surpluses or at least breaking even.

A key in this was the financial performance of the state’s 10 urban councils, which accounted for $11.25 million of the $16.42 million total — with Clarence City Council posting the best figure of $4.8 million.

But six councils totalling just over $5 million in deficit have come under fire from Mr Whitehead, who says they have to get their acts together.

“The overall financial operating performance of councils continued to improve compared to last year but some councils, albeit fewer in num- ber, still having further work to do,” he said.

Kingborough and Flinders — which posted deficits of $370,000 and $1.125 million respectively — have recorded underlying deficits in all 10 years of the reporting period.

Also posting losses were George Town ($1.113 million), Burnie City Council ($940,000), King Island ($827,000) and Northern Midlands ($678,000).

Kingborough’s deficit was a big improvement on 2015-16 ($2.16 million), but Mayor Steve Wass said he was more focused on providing ratepayers with the infrastructure they required.

Burnie general manager Andrew Wardlaw said he was confident the council would be back in the black soon. Flinders Mayor Carol Cox said the council was concerned at the large deficit.

King Island Mayor Duncan McFie said he believed the council would address the problems by next year. Northern Midlands Mayor David Downie said extra road maintenance because of flooding had pushed its bottom line out.