Moorabool Shire Long Term Financial Plan 2025 - 2035

Why do we have a Long Term Financial Plan? 

The Local Government Act 2020 requires Council to take an integrated approach to strategic planning and reporting. As part of this integrated strategic reporting and planning framework, a Council must develop, adopt and keep in force a Financial Plan with an outlook of at least 10 years. A Long Term Financial Plan provides a vital tool for Council. The importance of the plan includes: 

• It is a 10-year view of our income and expenses. 
• It contains our proposed rates and borrowings for the next 10 years. 
• It incorporates the projected financial impacts of the Council Plan actions and the Community Vision. 
• It seeks to address risks associated with: 
  • Our financial viability; and  
  • The management of our current and future liabilities. 

We review the Financial Plan yearly, ensuring that we stay on track to be able to deliver on what we’ve set out to achieve. 

It is important to note that we aim to deliver on the plan, however with various assumptions over the 10 year period, a reduce degree of certainty exists as we approach 10 years. That’s why we update our estimates as we go through various stages of planning and procurement. 

What is a Long Term Financial Plan? 

A Long Term Financial Plan provides a financial view for the next 10 years for Council. These views include: 

• What we will do 
• How much it may cost 
• How we can fund it 

We want our community to understand how the Financial Plan is structured, the decisions involved and where the money goes to deliver services to the community.  

We have an obligation to our future community, and we want to ensure we can respond to future events, opportunities and pressures. 

Aims of the Long Term Financial Plan? 

The aim of a Long Term Financial Plan is to express in financial terms the activities that Council proposes to undertake over the medium to longer term to achieve its stated objectives. It helps guide Council’s future actions depending on longer-term revenue and expenditure proposals. The plan has a strong alignment with the Council Vision and the Council Plan and also highlights key forces that has the potential to materially impact long term objectives. 

Highlights of the Long Term Financial Plan? 

1. Operating results trend in later years is to remain at an acceptable level. The Adjusted Underlying Result indicates the sustainability of operating result required to enable Council to continue delivering core services in the long term and meet its objectives whilst paying close attention to this indicator. 

2. Unrestricted cash is expected to steadily increase over the 10 year period. This is a result of necessary increased costs in service and infrastructure delivery required for our existing, growing and new communities. Council will be proactive in delivering best value services whilst improving this indicator.  

3. Trend indicates Council’s reducing reliance on debt against its annual rate through redemption of long term debt. Council’s indebtedness ratio will peak in 2027-2028 at 59.66%, however this ratio will fluctuate dependent upon Council’s borrowing and capital works requirements and will be refined each year as further borrowings are identified and utilised to delivery infrastructure to the community.  The ratio then consistently declines in line with Council’s declining level  of borrowings  

How has the draft Long Term Financial Plan been developed? 

The insights gained during the deliberative engagement workshops and broader consultation helped Council shape the Community Vision 2030 whilst providing the medium to long-term direction of how the community sees the municipality in ten years’ time. The development of the draft Long Term Financial Plan 2025 - 2035 has been informed by the Community Vision 2030 and contains the financial resources required to deliver our strategic objectives over the next 10 years. 

The preparation of a long-term financial plan generates improved information to guide Council’s decisions about the mix and timings of outlays on operating activities and additional assets and the funding implications of these. Without a sound based long-term financial plan, the Council with its significant asset management responsibilities is unlikely to have sufficient data to determine sustainable service levels with affordable asset strategies, appropriate revenue targets and treasury management.  

We want our community to understand how the Financial Plan is put together, the decisions involved and where the money goes to deliver services to the community. 

Pressures on our budget are changing all the time, which means we are always making decisions about what is in and out of the budget – we don’t want to spend more than we can afford! 

We have an obligation to our future community, and we want to ensure we can respond to future events, opportunities and pressures. 

How we use the Long Term Financial Plan. 

The Financial Plan is a vital tool for Council. Here’s why: 

• It is a 10-year view of our income and expenses. 

• It contains our proposed rates and borrowings for the next 10 years. 

• It incorporates the projected financial impacts of the Council Plan actions and the Community Vision 

• It seeks to address risks associated with: 

1. our financial viability; and 

2. the management of our current and future liabilities. 

We review the 10 year Financial Plan every year, ensuring that we stay on track to be able to deliver the Council Plan actions and achieve our Community Vision. 

It’s important to note that the Plan’s accuracy is greatest in the next few years and then becomes less certain as we approach 10 years. That’s why we update our estimates as we go through various stages of planning and procurement.