Brisbane City Council budget: Lord Mayor’s swipe at State Labor

IN DELIVERING Brisbane City’s budget a day after the State Budget, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the Queensland Government.

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BRISBANE City Council has set an example for others to follow by delivering a budget with a lower debt impact on ratepayers and controlled staff costs, according to Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

In an obvious shot at the State Government, Cr Quirk said keeping debt low was important.

“The ratepayers want their money out there working for them, and I think there is some examples for people to learn here,’’ he said.

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When he delivered last year’s budget he forecast the debt per capita this year would $1805, but it has come in at $1495.

However that won’t last, because the Brisbane Metro project will force the debt per capita up to $2169 and growing over the forward estimates.

“I also predicted the operating surplus would be in negative territory for three years,’’ Cr Quirk said.

“The budget I present today has an operating surplus for the next 10 years.

“This budget does give a strong outlook.

“The basics of this budget are stronger than we presented last year.

“Building in the city has slowed. So we see in this budget an expectation that infrastructure changes will fall from $135 million to $100 million.

“Next year it will be around the same before we see an upsurge in building activity.’’

Cr Quirk said the council had also concentrated on keeping the organisation as “skinny’’ as possible.

Employee costs would rise in line with a new enterprise agreement, but the increase between this year and 2019-20 was under 4 per cent.