GOULBURN Mulwaree Council has over $77 million in investments.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It’s about time they started spending some of it, the organisation’s new general manager says.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s appropriate that we keep $70m of ratepayers’ money in the bank,” Warwick Bennett told the Post.
But rather than repaying $9 million owing on the Highland Source pipeline, Mr Bennett says there are some more pressing expenses.
A $40 million upgrade of Goulburn’s sewerage treatment plant is just one of them.
“It’s a huge expense and that must be our focus to make sure it’s affordable for community,” he said.
Mayor Geoff Kettle has already floated the option of securing private sector funds for the work. He said with government belt tightening, Council had to look to private enterprise for assistance.
The Federal Government has frozen Federal Assistance Grants to councils over the next three years.
But Mr Bennett says with introduction of new programs, some $330 million extra will be available to councils, albeit on a competitive basis.
“We’ve catered for the loss of the FAGS but why bleat about it?” Cr Kettle said.
“Why don’t we work with them to get our hands on some of the money and on some of the other funds they’ve established?” He was among 13 council mayors and 13 general managers who recently met with Federal MP Angus Taylor about available money.
As part of a wide ranging report to the September 2 Council meeting, Mr Bennett also suggests making better use of investments.
“There are a number of funds that are not proposed to be expended over the next few years and we need to reassess better utilisation of those funds,” he wrote.
“One of the options could be that we use those monies for internal loan borrowings rather than borrowing from the banks.”
He argued this would be a far better deal than the banks’ rate of 5.5 to six per cent.
A report to this month’s meeting showed that Council had $77, 14,052 in investments. Some $2.7m of this was derived from investment of the pipeline loan.
A review of Council’s long-term financial plan will occur in the next six months.