89c in every ratepayer dollar to be spent on basics
Date published: 24 June 2022
Townsville City Council have committed 89 cents out of every ratepayer dollar to fund services like roads, drains, mowing, city maintenance, water, waste and resource management and wastewater treatment following record investment from state and federal governments for the city’s major projects.
Releasing the $957.5 million 2022/23 budget earlier this week, Mayor Jenny Hill said Council was committed to delivering services to the community.
“Thanks to our history of strong financial management, we are in the enviable position of being able to invest heavily in the services our community expect while also having the external funding to continue work on our major future-proofing projects for Townsville,” Cr Hill said.
Planning and Development Committee chairperson Deputy Mayor Mark Molachino said a strong focus of the 2022/23 budget was ensuring services and local works continued being delivered to the community.
“Our population is nearing 200,000 residents, which means it’s more important now than ever to get our essential services right for our community,” Cr Molachino said.
“We are investing $774 million in delivering services like asset maintenance, water, wastewater treatment, waste management and resource recovery because we understand how vital they are to keeping our community running.”
Infrastructure Services Committee chairperson Kurt Rehbein said Council regularly maintained 372 parks, 118 grassed drains and 372 road reserves - a footprint equivalent to maintaining 5200 football fields each week.
“Providing these services requires significant investment, which is why we have allocated $96 million toward programs of work to maintain a clean and tidy city,” Cr Rehbein said.
“The investment will support the maintenance of parks, gardens and open spaces, as well as graffiti removal.
“Our community expect us to get those things right, which is why we are investing in delivering for services today as well as building to meet future demand.”
For every $200 invested by ratepayers:
- $27.14 will pay for wastewater services
- $10.61 will pay for waste management and resource recovery
- $62.25 will pay for water services
- $25.40 will pay for parks and open spaces management
- $5.63 will pay for drains and stormwater management
- $47.52 will pay for road and transport upgrades, maintenance and management
Mayor Jenny Hill said while a keen eye had been focussed on delivering for the community in the next 12 months, council had not lost its focus on growing the city for a secure future.
“We are on track to grow Townsville, with strong confidence and investment from both the private and public sector in the city’s future,” Cr Hill said.
“Our sound credit rating, as recently reported by the Queensland Treasury Corporation and the Queensland Audit Office, means we have been able to attract $266 million in external funding for capital projects and operations over the past 12 months.”
Some of these projects include:
- Lansdown, which has received has the backing of the new Federal Government to the tune of a total $34 million, as well as a new commitment from the Queensland Government of $26 million;
- The $70M Hydrogen Hub;
- NQ Spark, which has attracted $32 million in federal support;
- The Haughton Pipeline which has attracted majority funding from the Queensland Government.
Visit our Budget 2022/23 page for more information.
