The North Burnett Regional Council is planning to slug its ratepayers with a minimum rate increase of 25 per cent as part of its new budget – but will still record a deficit.
Council released the agenda for its 7 July budget meeting on Tuesday, 1 July, with the document detailing the proposed measures the deficit-stricken local government organisation is looking to adopt for the 2025-26 financial year.
Among the harshest proposed measures to recoup council’s rising costs of managing the region that can be found on the document is a staggering 25 per cent minimum rate increase.
Properties like residential homes on blocks less than a hectare large could have to pay at least $237 more on their twice-yearly rates between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
Commercial properties, grazing and cropping blocks are due to receive a $319 increase, and the North Burnett’s many fruit-growing businesses will see their payments to council rise by $351.
The NBRC has also altered several rating categories from last year’s budget.
Businesses like motels and caravan parks are this year lumped together into the ‘Accommodation Facility’ category, while other industries like electricity generation and petroleum have seen a similar simplification.
Council is this year also planning to drag investors and owners of multiple properties to the till: a new rating category concerns residential blocks under a hectare large that are not a ‘principal place of residence’. Such properties are rated at a minimum $1,301 – $118 more than same-sized houses occupied by their owners.
Besides rates, the NBRC is also raising the cost of its various utility charges and levies.
All sewerage, water supply and waste collection charges are due to rise by 19 per cent in the new budget, while the Local Disaster-, Natural Resource- and Landfill Management levies feature between 19 and 19.4 per cent increases.
In the new financial year, council is furthermore planning to abolish the five per cent discount on early payment of general rates.
In a report on its proposed budget, the North Burnett Regional Council claims that the bottom-line cost increase for its largest group of ratepayers – those living in their own residential properties – will be around 22 per cent, amounting to $31.49 a fortnight or an extra $818.74 a year.
Council’s latest proposed rates rise marks a departure from previous years; in the 2024-25 financial year, minimum rates as well as utility charges and levies went up by just five per cent compared to this year’s planned 25 per cent and 19 per cent increases.
The NBRC’s budget documents indicate that the push toward harsher revenue-raising measures will earn the local government organisation an extra $4.52 million over last year.
However, even with the boost to its coffers, the North Burnett’s council is on track to record a $8.038 million deficit in the new year – only $566,000 less than its 2024-25 deficit of $8.604 million.
The 2025-26 period marks the ninth straight year of council’s finances being in the red, with the last operating surplus recorded in the 2016-17 budget.
Over the coming years, the North Burnett Regional Council plans to drive up rates payments even more. The organisation’s 2026-27 financial forecast states council expects to earn $32.012 million in rates, levies and charges payments – $4.651 million more than the previous year.
The North Burnett Regional Council will vote on the proposed rates and charges increases as well as the remainder of the 2025-26 budget at its 7 July meeting in Gayndah.
To find out what other costs are going up in this year’s North Burnett budget, click here:
