Despite a rocky start when sworn in earlier this year, Logan City Council is now over $6 million above budget and Deputy Mayor Jon Raven said this was because ‘they were disciplined’.
At this month’s Council meeting Councillor Lisa Bradley read out parts of the financial executive report.
Cr Lisa Bradley addressing the Logan City Council meeting.
“It’s very pleasing to see Council’s financial position as of September 30 this year there was an operating surplus of $7.11 million,” Cr Bradley said.
“Which is $6.7 million above budget.
“This variance is consistent with the operating expenses which are below a budget of $1.09 million. An operating revenue was above budget by 3.58% being $5.62 million. Which is due to dry weather and the increased water usage. Plus revenue received from development applications and unbudgeted grants.
“When we took over office earlier this year and we went into the budget process the figures showed our council was heading into an operating deficit. Meaning we were chewing into the city’s savings to keep our lights on.
“Fast forward to now and this places us in a very good position as we head into the budget discussion starting next week.”
Cr Jon Raven addressing the Logan City Council meeting.
Cr Raven agreed and said he was proud of Council.
“When we came into office this budget was in the red and I wanted to commend my colleagues for the hard work we did,” he said.
“Including taking a paycut ourselves, our own pay freeze, and making sure the things that might be considered benefits were cut out of the budget this year in order to do that budget repair work.
“And now we head into the budget knowing we’ve got an extra $7 million that we didn’t have before, because we were disciplined.
“Because we made the hard decisions early, because we took the hit in the media, and we pushed on and did what was right for the future of this city.”
