SCENIC Rim ratepayers have escaped the predicted seven per cent rate rise, but at the expense of any new initiatives for the next 12 months.
As Scenic Rim Regional Council passed its $119.6 million 2025-26 budget, the focus was very much on maintaining existing infrastructure and reining in costs where possible, with a rate increase of 4.5 per cent.
Mayor Tom Sharp described the budget as a back to basics budget with the emphasis on roads, rubbish and rates.
Mayor Sharp said while Council is facing increased costs, the Councillors understand that ratepayers are also suffering that economic impact.
“It is not at all a sexy budget, it is very much a back to basics budget of priorities, which are roads and an attempt to keep the maintenance program in place while at the same time continuing to see how we can get efficiencies into the operation,” he said.
Reduced costs include slashing $200,000 from Council’s fleet management costs and $60,000 from the public art budget.
Lower rates versus spending
Division One Councillor, Amanda Hay, said she would have been happy with the seven per cent rate increase which was forecast in the Draft Budget.
Tamborine Mountain Sports Association has had $500,000 allocated to replace the septic system, $400,000 has been allocated to drainage rehabilitation in Freemont Drive, Tamborine Mountain and $250,000 to construct a new toilet in Lions Park.
However, feedback from the community led to Councillors cutting costs and putting any new resident or Councillor initiatives on hold in order to keep the rates low.
Division Councillor, Kerri Cryer, said trying to keep the rates low was the main goal of Council budget discussions over the last two months.
“We spent two months working through every part of what Council spends their money on – a lot of time and effort goes into it,” Cr Cryer said.
She admitted that some residents would be disappointed with the spending, but said Council is still looking at some of the budget submissions.
“The problem with Division Two is there is not a lot of infrastructure there, it is mainly residential.”
“There are almost 4,500 people in Tamborine itself who would appreciate a few things.”
In Division Two, Veresdale Scrub Road has had $1,866,983 allocated in 2025-26 and the same amount for the next financial year.
“Tamborine is in need of big ticket items such as footpaths and a master plan and I’ll keep advocating for those,” Cr Cryer said.
“Across the division there are a number of road and drainage issues that also need attention.”
Cr Cryer said budget negotiations started with a proposed 9.5% increase which would have enabled the Council to undertake the new initiatives put forward by both community members and councillors.
“The decision in the end was to get the rate increase as low as possible and still be able to maintain council services.”
Deficit predicted
Both Councillors Hay and Cryer said they were not concerned that Council has predicted a budget deficit for the next three years.
“We have a deficit but we have kept it at a level where it is sustainable but the rates will have to go up eventually to reduce that deficit and provide more services,” said Cr Cryer.
Division Six Councillor, Duncan McInnes expressed concerns about the deficit in the meeting.
“I will be supporting the budget well and truly,” he stated.
“I do note though that we can’t continue with a budget like this moving forward, having a loss every year.”
Cr McInnes said the choice would be between cutting services or raising rates eventually – noting that some Councils in Queensland have increased rates by ten percent or more.
“We have to be responsible but we also have to be wary – it’s not something that we can keep doing all the time – running at a loss.”
Mayor Sharp stated that over the past three years Council’s income has been underestimated by as much as twenty per cent, giving him confidence that the forecast deficit would be greatly reduced.
Efficiencies
Earlier in the year, a Continuous Improvement Coordinator was employed by Council to identify opportunities to reduce costs across the organisation.
Council’s investment of $5.5 million over the next three years on upgrades to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems is also aimed at increasing efficiencies.
A large component of the upgrades will focus on the core system currently used by Council, TechnologyOne, an Australian enterprise software provider based in Brisbane.
Cybersecurity will be another critical focus of the investment, with upgrades to Council’s digital security systems designed to better protect sensitive ratepayer information and ensure greater system resilience in the face of increasing cyber threats.
Media kept in the dark
For the first time in over 10 years, local media were not provided with an embargoed copy of the budget and waited until after the meeting to receive budget papers.
Previously, an embargoed copy was provided to local media sources in advance, to allow them to analyse the budget and formulate questions following the meeting.
An email to another news outlet which was shared with Tamborine Mountain News, stated “Council is unable to provide embargoed copies of the Budget documentation as this is still being finalised.”
Budget papers and media releases were emailed to local media following the budget meeting on Wednesday July 9.
