The Draft Rating Strategy 2019/2020 guides Council in setting rates each financial year. The strategy aims to fairly distribute rates across the municipality and raise enough income to be able to deliver the services and projects needed for Banyule. The strategy also sets out an approach for supporting ratepayers experiencing financial hardship and our approach to overdue rates.

The Draft Rating Strategy 2019/2020 is very similar to last years and there are no change to property charges and no change to the way rates are applied in Banyule.

Part of the Rating Strategy outlines the different rates that apply to the following land types:

• Residential Improved
• Residential Vacant
• Commercial Improved
• Commercial Vacant
• Industrial Improved
• Industrial Vacant

The Draft Fees and Charges Schedule 2019/2020 outlines what Council will charge for various goods and services, both statutory and non-statutory. When setting our fees and charges, we considered the impact of fee increases on the community and how the costs of the services compare with similar services provided by others.

The Draft Fees and Charges Schedule for 2018/19 proposes:

• 24% of individual fees and charges won't increase from 2018/19
• The majority of fees that have increased are generally in line with CPI (3%)
• Where increases in the user fees and charges are above CPI, the increases are considered by bench marking against other similar services and based on recovering the full cost of providing the service.
• Specifically, user fees and charges were not increased if they are considered to have a detrimental impact on the community or the fees were already similar to those of others providing the same services.

We would love to hear your thoughts on both the Draft Fees and Charges Schedule 2019-2020 and the Draft Rating Strategy 2019-2020.

Every four years we develop a Strategic Resource Plan which outlines how we will manage our financial and non-financial resources over the next four years to achieve our strategic objectives. The current Plan covers the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021

As well as this 4 year Plan, we create an annual budget that implements our Council Plan. The budget includes costs relating to operating the Council like staffing and administering our services as well as budget for physical projects like road repairs, new footpaths and new or upgraded facilities.

The Budget 2018/2019 is developed in accordance with the Local Government Act 1989, and is shaped using community consultation. Each year the budget needs to focus on delivering quality services and keeping any rate increase in line with the State Government’s Rate Cap.

There are four key components of the budget, these are;