West Wimmera Shire Council has adopted its 2024-25 Budget and Annual Plan.

Council endorsed both documents at a meeting on Wednesday.

A key feature of the 2024- 25 budget is a strong focus on maintaining and enhancing key infrastructure, particularly roads, and promoting education, healthcare, tourism, and economic development.

A highlight of the budget includes $7.203 million on critical infrastructure including the road network.

Mayor Tim Meyer said Council maintained 2,720 km of local roads.

“We have contributed a significant amount of money on our road network in this budget, which is a vital community asset,” he said.

The adopted budget is slightly different to the proposed draft budget, which was released for public comment in April.

This is largely due to changes in federal and state government allocations towards regional and rural councils.

Council had to remove certain expenses from its previously balanced draft budget, and as a result, the 2024-25 budget now has a $697,000 deficit, which will be drawn from Council’s reserves.

The 2024-25 budget has an income of $27,275 million, including $9.829 million from operating grants and another $4.843 million in capital grants.

Cr Meyer acknowledged the financial hurdles Council was facing.

“We remain committed to investing in vital community projects and we will continue to try to advocate and push for these projects as much as we can,” he said.

“Overall, we are still in a sound financial position, because we have been sensible with our spending.

The budget includes $5.085 million for capital projects, combined with $3.805 million from federal and state governments, allowing Council to deliver approximately $9.395 million worth of projects.

This article appeared in the  Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 26 June 2024.