About our finances
Here we outline key information about our financial performance for the year. You will find out about our income and spending during 2019-20.
Our income
Our total income for the year was $221.293 million.
There was an increase in income of $3.842 million (or 1.8%) compared to 2018-19. This was largely due to the growth in income from rates.
Our major source of income is rates and charges. This includes:
- general rates
- waste management charge
- special rates and charges
- supplementary rates
- rate adjustments
- interest on rates.
During 2019-20, this generated $159.319 million or 72.0% of our total income.
Other major sources of income included:
- government grants of $22.850 million (or 10.4% of total income)
- user fees, statutory fees and fines of $19.380 million (or 8.8% of total income).
Our expenses
Our total operating expenses for the year were $190.151 million.
The largest part of this was the cost of employing our staff. This was $89.608 million or 47.2% of our total expenses.
The next biggest cost was material and services at $59.186 million (31.2% of total expenses).
A surplus for the year
Our accounting surplus is $31.142 million for the financial year.
This accounting surplus is not spare funds which build up in the bank. It funds other items on our balance sheet. This includes our capital works program and loan repayments.
Other funds are directed to reserves. Reserves are committed to future capital works expenditure or other important one-off items.
$221.3M
Income in 2019-20
$190.2M
Operating expenses in 2019–20
$31.1M
Surplus for 2019–20
Operating expenditure profile for 2019-20
Capital expenses
Our total completed capital expenditure for the year was $44.486 million. We spent another $14.719 million on works in progress.
Capital expenditure is when we spend money to renew, improve or build new assets. This is things like roads, buildings or infrastructure. They help us achieve our strategic objectives and support the delivery of services.
Our total spending on completed capital works was $18.571 million above the depreciation for the year.
Top 5 capital works by category delivered in 2019-20
Capital works
The graph above shows the top 5 categories of capital works we delivered in 2019-20.
Below you can find the full list of capital works.
| Asset class | Amount |
|---|---|
| Land | $12.597m |
| Roads | $8.923m |
| Buildings | $6.122m |
| Footpaths and cycleways | $4.471m |
| Other infrastructure | $4.280m |
| Drainage | $3.831m |
| Plant, machinery and equipment | $2.509m |
| Library collection | $0.992m |
| Fixtures, fittings and furniture | $0.447m |
| Computers and telecommunications | $0.268m |
| Bridges | $0.046m |
COVID-19 and our finances
There were extra costs because of the COVID-19 pandemic and we lost income as well.
We had:
- increased costs of $1 million due to the closure of leisure centres
- a $900,000 decrease in income due to the deferral of rates revenue and introduction of an interest free period
- a $900,000 decrease in infringement income
- a $100,000 decrease in venue hire income
- a $100,000 decrease in revenue due to a waiver on sporting fees
- a $100,000 decrease in parking income.
The impact of stage 4 restrictions, which applied from 2 August 2020, occurred after the end of the 2019-20 financial year.
You can read more about the impact of COVID-19 on our services.
More detail
If you want to read more about our finances, you can download our detailed Financial Report. We prepared this report under relevant accounting standards and legislative requirements.
These statements are detailed and can be hard to understand. There is a simple summary at the start of the Financial Report that explains the terms used. It also talks about the different types of statements in the report and what they mean.
Download our full financial report.
If you have questions about the report, you can ask us. We can help explain it to you. Just contact us.