{"id":5565,"date":"2020-03-23T00:20:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T00:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=5565"},"modified":"2020-03-23T00:20:04","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T00:20:04","slug":"city-of-newcastle-2020-21-draft-budget-available-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/03\/23\/city-of-newcastle-2020-21-draft-budget-available-now\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Newcastle 2020-21 draft budget available now"},"content":{"rendered":"

City of Newcastle will seek the support of Councillors\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0evening\u00a0to place\u00a0its\u00a0draft 2020-21 Budget\u00a0(known as the Operational Plan)\u00a0on public exhibition.
\nThe\u00a0draft\u00a0Budget, which was prepared\u00a0before the World Health\u00a0Organisation\u00a0declared COVID-19 a pandemic virus, forecasts\u00a0an operating surplus of\u00a0$3.1\u00a0million and\u00a0includes\u00a0a $83 million works program.
\nLord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said\u00a0staff would spend the next six weeks reshaping the draft Budget\u00a0in light of\u00a0COVID-19.
\n\u201cWe understand that every business, whether small, medium or large, is suffering enormously from the impacts of COVID-19 and will likely\u00a0be\u00a0affected\u00a0for the foreseeable future.
\n\u201cWe also know that there are\u00a0some\u00a0small businesses locally that may not survive the immediate downturn in economic activity.
\n\u201cOur\u00a0role is\u00a0to identify how we\u00a0assist and support\u00a0our community. Our\u00a02020-21\u00a0Budget is the tool through which we will\u00a0direct\u00a0much of this\u00a0support\u00a0with regard to\u00a0our bottom-line,\u00a0knowing that it will\u00a0be\u00a0impacted as a result.\u201d
\n\u201cCouncil will also Tuesday night consider\u00a0a proposed\u00a0Community and Economic Resilience\u00a0Package designed to provide immediate support to businesses and individuals impacted by COVID-19.
\n\u201cNewcastle has a long history of dealing with economic adversity, which gives us the confidence to know that as a community we can get through this together. It will be challenging and have personal impact, but with community mindedness, we will come out the other side.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0especially focused on\u00a0social cohesion and\u00a0those\u00a0in our community now\u00a0facing unemployment,\u00a0as well as the elderly who are required to live in isolation for the\u00a0next\u00a0few months in order to\u00a0minimise\u00a0their exposure to COVID-19.
\n\u201cAs a Council, we must do all we can to help our City\u00a0get back up,\u201d Cr Nelmes said.
\nCEO Jeremy Bath said\u00a0the impact on the\u00a0local\u00a0economy\u00a0from COVID-19\u00a0is likely to\u00a0linger for many years.
\n\u201cLike all Councils, we have a legislative requirement to have an approved budget\u00a0in place\u00a0from 1 July 2020.\u00a0This\u00a0means\u00a0we must\u00a0place\u00a0the\u00a0draft\u00a0budget on public exhibition now so that the community and Councillors have\u00a0enough\u00a0time to consider whether\u00a0it\u00a0appropriately addresses community needs.
\n\u201cA\u00a0revised budget will be\u00a0circulated\u00a0with Councillors and the community in late May which will\u00a0include an increased works program, recognising that City of Newcastle\u00a0can help reduce this extraordinary\u00a0decline in local economic activity through bringing forward capital works\u00a0to occur in\u00a02021\u00a0and 2022.
\n\u201cStaff\u00a0have started\u00a0quantifying the financial impact of COVID-19 on the City\u2019s finances. In the past two weeks, we have seen the cancellation or postponement of\u00a081\u00a0bookings\u00a0and live theatre shows.
\n\u201cThese bookings account for $595,000 in lost income for\u00a0the next three months.\u00a0The\u00a0financial\u00a0impact for next year\u2019s budget will of course be far,\u00a0far greater.
\n\u201cWe are also seeing significant\u00a0falls\u00a0in our\u00a0incomes\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0reduced\u00a0receipt of\u00a0commercial waste at Summerhill Waste Management Centre, facility and\u00a0sporting field bookings, our\u00a0long-term\u00a0investments\u00a0and\u00a0parking\u00a0meters.
\n\u201cThe\u00a0draft\u00a0budget will now be boosted to help support our community through this time of crisis. The\u00a0proposed 2021\u00a0works program\u00a0is likely to\u00a0largely\u00a0remain, with\u00a0most of the changes to be\u00a0the\u00a0inclusion\u00a0of\u00a0works\u00a0that were intended\u00a0to occur\u00a0in 2022,\u201d Mr Bath said.
\nThe\u00a0draft Budget\u00a0includes a $19 million investment\u00a0in\u00a0key initiatives at Summerhill Waste Management Centre, including the expansion of Cell 9 for landfill and construction of the Organics Recycling\u00a0Facility; $9.2 million\u00a0on\u00a0Urban\u00a0Centre and City Centre revitalisation; and $5 million to continue the revitalisation of the city\u2019s coastline.
\nOther highlights include:
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $11.8 million on\u00a0road\u00a0and transport\u00a0infrastructure\u00a0projects;
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $26.7\u00a0million to\u00a0city wide services\u00a0(including $2.7 million on aquatic centres, $3.2\u00a0million\u00a0on recreation, parks, sporting facilities and open space\u00a0as well as\u00a0$19 million on waste initiatives);
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $6.7 million towards stormwater\u00a0projects;
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $7 million\u00a0towards\u00a0environment;
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $3.5\u00a0million on Smart City projects\u00a0and strategy; and
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $5.2\u00a0million towards replacing outdated fleet.
\nA further $3.5 million\u00a0has also been set aside\u00a0to combat\u00a0coastal erosion in Stockton\u00a0through\u00a0short-to-medium-term\u00a0measures permitted under the Coastal Zone Management Plan, approved by the NSW Government in August 2018.
\nShould the Government\u00a0approve long-term measures via\u00a0the\u00a0Stockton Coastal Management Program, which\u00a0the City\u00a0will submit by 30 June 2020,\u00a0Council will consider funding contributions through its quarterly\u00a0budget review process, along with options for external funding.
\nThe draft\u00a0budget\u00a0is\u00a0available to view in full on the City\u2019s website\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City of Newcastle will seek the support of Councillors\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0evening\u00a0to place\u00a0its\u00a0draft 2020-21 Budget\u00a0(known as the Operational Plan)\u00a0on public exhibition. The\u00a0draft\u00a0Budget, which was prepared\u00a0before the World Health\u00a0Organisation\u00a0declared COVID-19 a pandemic virus, forecasts\u00a0an operating surplus of\u00a0$3.1\u00a0million and\u00a0includes\u00a0a $83 million works program. Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said\u00a0staff would spend the next six weeks reshaping the draft Budget\u00a0in light … Continue reading “City of Newcastle 2020-21 draft budget available now”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}