Isaac Regional Council votes on 2024-2025 budget

As the Isaac Regional Council adopts a new budget for the coming financial year, ratepayers in urban areas will see their rates decrease while rural land owners will have to pay more.

Isaac Regional Council deputy Mayor Kelly Vea Vea was elected unopposed.

As the Isaac Regional Council adopts a new budget for the coming financial year, ratepayers in urban areas will see their rates decrease while rural landowners will have to pay more.

Mayor Kelly Vea Vea said the new council budget guaranteed 97 per cent of residential ratepayers would not be faced with an increase of more than $5 a week or $240 a year.

Compared with last financial year, if a person’s principal place of residence is located in an urban area and valued at more than $73,000, rates will go from $1,286.50 to $1,250.00 per year.

For those with rural residential land will jump on average from $779.50 to $818.50 per year.

Charges will also be increasing next financial year, with water pricing for a residential house jumping from $891.20 to $941.60, which is an increase of around 5.6 per cent.

“We are committed to growing our communities and serving them better while placing a priority on things that matter to our residents, like roads, waste collection, and water security,” Mayor Vea Vea said.

Mayor Kelly Vea Vea hands down her first budget alongside the Councillors on 26 June 2024.

Ms Vea Vea outlined the budget for the region would be prioritising road projects, with an announced 45 per cent of the total $55.5 million invested in capital expenditure going towards fixing deteriorating roads across the 4,500 km Isaac network.

It includes the $5.5m on Phillips Creek Bridge replacement construction, $3.5m to replace parts of the unsealed road network, $2.54 million for the replacement of Cooroora Creek Bridge on Mt Stuart Bedford Weir Road near Middlemount, or $1.34m to construct seven new concrete floodways on unsealed networks near Clermont.

Other promises include the delivery of study hubs that would be jointly funded, with a $2m state-funded grant for the Isaac Country Universities Centre while council’s budget would fund ‘fit outs’.

It also places the Stage 1 of the Nebo Showgrounds Master Plan as a priority project delivered in the next two years, via $1.7m in Australian Government funding, which would deliver primary infrastructure upgrades, heavy vehicle access, general camping upgrades and car parking improvements.

Originally published as Isaac Regional Council votes on 2024-2025 budget