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The how and why of council budgets | The Examiner | July 1, 2025
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yesterday
The City of Launceston council has endorsed its budget for the 2025-26 financial year - here's how they actually create it. Video by Joe Colbrook
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00:00
It's council budget season, and it's very easy to get caught up in how much your rates
00:04
are going up by, how much it's going to cost to get your bins collected, but you might
00:08
not stop and think, what actually goes into preparing the council budget? Where do these
00:12
numbers come from? Well, today I'm here to tell you how. Unlike a household budget where
00:18
you might start with your expected income and work out how much you can spend, the council's
00:22
budget is done a bit back to front. Nine months ahead of time, each of the council's departments
00:27
are asked to submit their budget requests for the next financial year, and these can
00:31
include things like running the aquatic centre, keeping cultural institutions like QVMAG open,
00:37
and of course maintaining the city's many parks. Once all these expected costs are added up,
00:43
as well as some more easily predictable forms of income, things like interest payments on
00:47
the council's cash savings and dividends paid on its investments, it then becomes time to
00:53
work out how much needs to be gathered in rates and what those rates should be. Ignoring the millions
00:59
of dollars that is expected to be spent on capital works projects, which is another budget entirely,
01:05
the city of Launceston council expects to return a deficit of $786,000 for the 2025 to 26 financial year.
01:14
It's got nothing in debt and quite a bit of cash, so it means that unless it carries on running these
01:20
deficits for several years or, say, decides to build a billion-dollar stadium down at Home Point,
01:26
should councillors want to, they can return the organisation to surplus within a few years.
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