Toowoomba Regional Council hands down 2025-2026 budget, includes 9.5 per cent general rate rise

Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald has fired up at the upper levels of government while defending enormous increases to rates, levies and charges. How much it will cost your family here:

Toowoomba residents have been slugged with a 9.5 per cent rate rise in the latest council budget, with the mayor calling it a plan to “strengthen our foundations”.

Toowoomba Regional Council endorsed a $705m budget for the coming financial year on Wednesday, which includes big rate rises for all areas to keep up with increasing costs of doing business and dwindling external funding.

Speaking during the meeting, mayor Geoff McDonald said the rate increase for near 70 per cent of rateable properties across the region would be worth an extra $240 a year on average, or about $4.50 per week.

“It is important to note, this considered rate increase is on the basis of a strong commitment to look at the ways we do business and the services we deliver for the community,” he said.

“It’s a strong commitment from this council that over the next 12 months, we’ve factored in a $14.75m saving in materials, services and operational expenditure in today’s budget.”

Mr McDonald said huge increases in the cost of fuel, insurance, electricity, state taxes and other essentials had put pressure on the council’s bottom line, while noting the shocking decreases in federal assistance (FA) grant support.

“More than ever before, councils across Australia are being asked to cover more services with less money,” he said.

“According to the LGAQ’s research, we’ve seen a 378 per cent increase in cost shifting over 20 years.

“The huge reduction in the FA grants has had a real impact on our ability to produce surpluses.

“To put that in perspective, TRC received over $19m in FA grants in 2021-22, the amount we received this year was just $5.5m.

“An increase in the cost of living is having an impact on the council.

“This year, we’ve budgeted $14m for electricity alone, just to keep essential services running and the lights on — that’s an increase of 15.5 per cent.

“Despite not changing our level of coverage, it’s costing the council $5m to pay our premiums, up from $3.9m last year.”

Here’s what we’ve learned from budget day:

Early payment discount cut as effective charges increase revealed

Toowoomba Regional Council mayor Geoff McDonald speaking to media about the 2025-2026 budget, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Residents will get less reward for paying their rates early this financial year, as the true cost of the 2025-26 council budget has been revealed.

The early payment discount has been slashed from 10 per cent to just five per cent for the coming 12 months, in what was once a major incentive to ensure rates were paid on time.

It comes as News Corp can reveal the true cost of the increases to rates, levies and charges is actually 10.17 per cent for most residents.

Analysis of the council budget reveals the minimum general rate payable by homes classed as City Urban Residential A (which is most of Toowoomba) will increase from $1234 in 2024-25 to $1351.

The controversial public transport levy has been increased to $43 from $40, while the council has also increased its rural fire equipment levy to $35 after keeping it static for years at $30.

The water infrastructure charge (for a 20mm connection) is now at nearly $800 per year, up from $746 in 2024-25 and $700 in 2023-24.

Waste management has also seen significant increases, with residents set to fork out $410 a year for both its kerbside collection and landfill charges (up from $384).

It means a family-of-four on a city property valued at $265,000 (the median for Toowoomba) using 200 litres of water per person daily will pay more than $5100 a year if they don’t pay early to access the discount.

If they do pay early for each notice, the cost will be under $5000.

Mayor Geoff McDonald said the decisions to hike rates, fees and charges were not “made lightly” by the council.

“This is happening right across the nation as well, so what I need to do and we as your elected representatives, we need to make it crystal clear – these decisions aren’t made lightly,” he said.

“These decisions are made with all the facts, information that is available to us at that time.

“This is a budget that shows belief in our community, belief in our region, and belief that councillors are doing their absolute best every day on behalf of the community.”

Nearly $100m for Cressbrook as big projects revealed

Councillor Tim McMahon speaking to media after Toowoomba Regional Council hands down 2025-2026 budget, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Several major projects will start work in the coming financial year, as the Toowoomba council warned of potential ballooning costs associated with the Cressbrook Dam safety upgrades.

The $705m budget includes a capital works budget of $236m, with nearly $470m dedicated to carrying out the cost of doing business.

More than $230m will be spent on water and wastewater projects, including nearly $100m towards the massive Cressbrook Dam safety upgrades that have been mandated by the state government.

There is also $160m for roads, drainage, footpaths and cycleways and $122m for community services, facilities and recreation projects.

Councillor Tim McMahon said he was excited to see planning continue on the Toowoomba Region Sports Precinct, along with construction starting on the Escarpment Mountain Bike master plan.

“Over $2 million is in this financial year to start work on the detailed planning for our Charlton Sports Park precinct,” he said.

“That’s a work that’s been a while in the making, and it will be a while in the delivering, but I really need us as a council to get behind starting work on the detailed design.

“Finally, we’ve got an escarpment mountain bike plan that has been on our books for several years.

“It’s my absolute pleasure to see over $1.3 million this financial year committed, so I want to make a commitment to the community that we will see this financial year, the planning, but also the shovels turning on that after a very long wait.”

Other major projects in the budget include the Cooby Dam inlet pipe replacement ($8.4m), the southern water treatment plant $7.1m) and the Highfields/O’Brien/Kratzke Roads intersection upgrade ($6m).

Council’s surplus depends on $15m savings (that haven’t been found yet)

The Toowoomba Regional Council has predicted it can reach a “moderate” surplus of $1.5m — but only if it can find nearly $15m in savings over the next 12 months.

Mayor Geoff McDonald revealed the financial pledge following the budget meeting on Wednesday, with the supposed savings to come out materials, services and other ordinary business elements.

However, Mr McDonald couldn’t guarantee the TRC could find the savings, saying work would start immediately on it.

“Over the next 12 months, we need to find across the organisation $14.75 million – that’s on today’s forecast,” he said.

“The work started about three years ago, to be fair, to get us so that we know what services we have.

“We’ve got a service catalogue which covers right across the region, that’s an important first step to understand what it’s costing to doing things and so we’ve got a reasonable handle on that.

“Are we doing a service that now is being done by other agencies that we need not do anymore? Are there some things we should be doing that aren’t being done?”

When asked about its viability as a goal, Mr McDonald pointed to the $13m in costs the council clawed back over the past six months.

“It’s important to reflect this current financial year, we forecast a moderate surplus of just under $1 million by December but six months later, it looked like we’re staring down the barrel of a $14.5 million deficit,” he said.

“It was forecast yesterday that, you know, with another month to go that we may be around about $1.5 million deficit, so that’s a $13 million saving we found over the last six months, and that’s a saving by doing things differently for better.”

Mayor smashes federal government on GST reform

Toowoomba Regional Council mayor Geoff McDonald prepares to speak to media about the 2025-2026 budget, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Picture: Kevin Farmer

As the Toowoomba council grapples with higher ongoing prices and more responsibilities, mayor Geoff McDonald has urged the federal government to “show courage” and invest in reform to the goods and services tax (GST).

The council has been hit hard by increases to costs electricity, insurance premiums and the state government’s waste levy, which in total will cost nearly $30m between the three.

In contrast, federal assistance grants have dropped from $19m in 2021-22 to just $5m this year.

Mr McDonald said this had been compounded by local governments being required to fund more projects and services over a long period of time.

He cited examples where multiple levels of government had funded a community project, only for either the state or federal money to dry up and leave the council covering the full ongoing cost.

But Mr McDonald said changes to the distribution of the GST would solve most local government funding challenges “overnight”.

“It’s an absolute joke the way that it is cut up and distributed across the nation,” he said.

“It’s unfair, it’s unreasonable and it’s not giving money into where that GST is collected from.

“Everything that we’ve said today — if that GST was fixed, if the tax reform took place over the next three years, that would fix 90 per cent of the problems in local government.

“We could have this conversation in 30 seconds or so if that was done because all the worries would go away.”

Originally published as Toowoomba Regional Council hands down 2025-2026 budget, includes 9.5 per cent general rate rise