2024-2025 Fees And Charges

Brian Stockwell183:01

I'll put the motion. Those in favour? That's unanimous. We'll move on to the next item, which is almost as riveting: Fees and Charges.

Brian Stockwell189:49

We're good to go. Okay, just give me a second. So, welcome back, Councillors. Our next item is in regard to the 2024-25 Fees and Charges, and this is something we generally do in advance to allow those who are reliant on setting fees for their clients to have a heads up what's happening at the end of this month, so I'll hand it over to our staff. We'll see you in a bit. Well, Pauline maybe is he's going to talk tell about you that.

It so the Local Government Act 2009 empowers Council to generate revenue from Fees and Charges by fixing a fee by way of local law or resolution. Fees and Charges can be set to recover the costs of building regulatory services like fees and permits, as well as those based on commercial full-cost pricing principles, including return on assets and support for the business activity, things like waste charges and low park fees. The proposed 2024-25 schedule provides over 1,000 will generate charges. Around $26 million in revenue to fund the delivery of Council services. Some key points to note for this year's Fees and Charges. Some fees may not increase due to regulatory market demand. Some fees may increase slightly higher due to routing. Operating margins for each business area have been reviewed to ensure they are maintained, and a reliance on general rates to fund operations is managed appropriately. Twice yearly Council reviews its amended holiday park fees, and this is to allow the port of deployment of sites 18 months in advance. And this review will extend those Fees and Charges to the 26th of January 2006. The Noosa North Shore ferry service, it will be transferring, transitioning to a new provider in July 2024. With the new operator to provide new larger capacity ferries, as well as the capacity for online ticket purchases and cash and card payments on board. The Fees and Charges proposed for adoption for the ferry service will apply once the new ferries are operational. But until that point in time, the current 2024 financial weeklies will continue to apply. Pricing to recover the true cost of service provision is necessary to ensure that Council generates sufficient revenues from its activities in line with financial sustainability policy. It also provides a diversified revenue base and ensures that the costs of services provided are equitably borne by those who benefit from them. The proposed 2024-25 Fees and Charges will come into effect on 1st of July 2024 once adopted by Council.

Frank Wilkie192:40

No, no, it's only, it's important that we ratify these Fees and Charges to give businesses that depend on forward modelling to have as much time as possible to set their budgets for the next financial year.

Brian Stockwell196:31

So to sort of support. We're talking about Fees and Charges here. Are we talking about a service we do or don't currently operate?

We currently operate learn to swim programs, definitely. It's one of our most successful programs for that age bracket. The fees don't go up every year, so we hook them up every second or third year, and that's why, in the Fees and Charges, it can look like a significant jump.

Through the Chair we can bring back obviously the first part would be a workshop for all the councils to understand the entire board really of the Fees and Charges and what the different tiers are and the different programs so you've got a complete picture of the broad array of Fees and Charges and what the differential is and if there is appetite for all the councils to change that we can do that at any time during the year and a budget would be the ideal time for us to revise the Fees and Charges.

Good afternoon again Councillor. So here today May 2024 operating revenues continue to outperform our forecast and operating expenditures are today. Operating revenues $2.4 million above budget which has been driven by interest income of $1.8 million, sales of goods and services of $1.6 million and other revenue of $500,000. This has been offset however this has been how upset by however lower than forecast revenues, Fees and Charges from developmental assessment, building and plumbing compliance, local laws and some community facilities. Operating expenditures $1.6 million underspent with $1.5 million of that relating to employee costs as a result of vacancies and the timing of recruitment. Materials and services expenditures services expenditure is also slightly underspent at $17,000. Overall Council's operating position at May 2024 is almost $4 million above budget. However, Council should note that we have not yet received advice from the commonwealth about the financial year 2024-25 financial assistance grant payment which we normally would receive in advance. If that prepayment does not occur prior to the 30th of June this year, this will impact Council's net operating position. It won't have a cash flow effect as we've already seen received this year's grant. I'm just flagging that it will have an operational impact. Moving on to capital, so year-to-date excluding disaster projects, Council has spent 58% of its full year capital program which equates to a $26.7 million. It has a further $8.6 million currently committed. Year-to-date, 32.6 million dollars has been spent on the QRA funded disaster projects. Thanks to one of the Councillors, Councillors should note that the cash section of the financial report on page 387 references April and that should reference May the. Cash holding at the end of May was 113 million dollars with 30 million dollars of these funds invested in term deposits. Cash holding continues to be higher than forecast with advanced payment of grants and subsidies as well as delay in the delivery of Council's capital program and QRA disaster projects. Council's cash balance will continue to decline as the operation expenditure differs through to the 30th of June. Overall Council's financial performance continues to be strong with 11 months of the year complete. We are forecasting that Council will end the year with a net operating surplus pending any end of year accounting adjustments. Thank you.