Council defers budget

The presentation of Baw Baw Shire’s draft budget to councillors has been deferred from tomorrow night’s meeting.

While council originally planned to consider its draft budget documents on April 22, council set the process back to May 13 because of the impact of COVID-19.

However, mayor Danny Goss has confirmed council has deferred its draft budget to allow councillors to fully consider all options and present the best outcome for its community during difficult circumstances.

Cr Goss said the state government had allowed municipalities until the end of August to lodge its annual budgets.

With the extra time, Cr Goss said council decided to further consider options.

“We want to get it right. Council is considering a lot of options around the budget.

“We have to listen to our community and consider what’s happening in the community at the moment,” he said.

Cr Goss said there had been lots of discussion about rates, fees and charges and expenditure.

He said they wanted to achieve savings in recurrent and capital expenditure.

“We want to see whether we can make changes so we can present an authentic budget to our community,” he said.

Cr Goss said the ability to listen to community submissions relating to the budget also was an important factor in the budget process.

He said given current social distancing restrictions, council hoped by delaying the process, it may enable a better consultation process with community members.

“We want to be able to hear submissions, it’s an important part of the process,” he said.

Cr Goss said council hoped to present the draft budget in another two weeks at its May 27 meeting.