Cutting the fat

BACK to basics was how Mayor Wayne Kratzmann described the 2012/2013 South Burnett Regional Council budget.

BUDGET TIME: Mayor for South Burnett Regional Council Wayne Kratzmann delivers the 2012/2013 budget on Wednesday morning Photo: Contributed. Picture: Jordan Philp

BACK to basics was how Mayor Wayne Kratzmann described the 2012/2013 South Burnett Regional Council budget.

The South Burnett Regional Council released on Wednesday morning the budget for the next financial year and will see rates rise and allocated funding spread across the South Burnett.

Rates will increase by 5.75% this year which Cr Kratzmann described as "lower than originally thought" with the carbon tax taken into consideration.

"Council worked hard on minimising the rate increase," he said.

"We were able to get the general rate increase down to 5.75%, which equates to less than $4 per week for the majority of rate payers in the South Burnett."

"Projections had been made for the impact of the carbon tax and indications are that it will be equivalent to a 1% and 2% increase," he said.

The mayor said the impact of rate increases will be varied across the South Burnett region with 78% of rate payers receiving an increase of less than $4 per week, 55% less than $3 per week and 38% less than $2 per week.

A large vocal point of the budget will be to improve the regions roads with over $70million to be spent on local road networks, a significant increase from past years $18 million.

"The time our engineers have spent working through a complex system has paid off and we are now ready to roll, with work already commencing in the southern part of the region which will be closely followed by works starting about September in the northern part of the region," said Cr Kratzmann.

The budget over the next financial year will also see major improvements made to the regional towns CBD areas said Cr Kratzmann.

"All CBDs are doing it tough and the last thing we want to see is empty shops."

"One of the things we recognise from our businesses across the region is they all need a bit of a tidy up and that costs major money," he said.

Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell said the new budget stripped away operations in the region considered unnecessary by the council.

"This budget we had to look really hard at every element of our operations to pull out that which wasn't needed."

"And some of the departments of council are operating on the bare essentials over the next 12-month period," said Cr Campbell.

This financial year the council has introduced quarterly rates said Cr Kratzmann.

"Council has also this year for the first time been truly appreciative of the tough economic conditions that currently prevail and with this in mind have introduced quarterly rate notices to assist households and business with their budgets," he said.

The quarterly notices will be issued in August, November, February and May with a discount of 10% being applied to each notice paid within 30 days.

Burnett Budget

Some of the improvements to the region for 2012/2013:

1.696million for water main replacement upgrades

$2.3million to replace the rising main from Gordonbrook Dam project.

$2.37million for water treatment plant upgrades

$527,000 on tourist and caravan parks

$425,000 on swimming pools

$585,000 parks and gardens, including $250000 for improvements to the development of Murgon and Wondai townships

$225,000 on regional cemeteries including the restoration of the Taromeo Cemetery

More than $140,000 of concessions to multiple regional organisations

Originally published as Cutting the fat