Looking after pensioners

Even (or perhaps especially) in these hard times, local government and the water utilities are still looking after pensioners. There's a difference however - local government takes the hit direct to its bottom line, while water utilities generally can claim their rebates back from the State government. Water billing software and rates billing software is designed to calculate these discounts; those for water are often surrounded with complex rules about how the rebate is to be calculated.

Banana Shire Council's 2009/10 budget was announced by Mayor John Hooper yesterday. Pensioners in the shire will get additional help to pay their new rates bills. The pensioner subsidy will go up from $180 to $250 in recognition of the “ongoing costs that this section of our community faces,” he said. Mr Hooper said it had been a difficult budget to balance as the council, one of the smallest remaining in Queensland in terms of population and rates base, struggled with limited sources of revenue and a level of uncertainty because of reduced state subsidies.

Mr Hooper said one of the primary objectives of the budget was to make the council more sustainable in the medium to longer term. Announcing the council's operational deficit would be $4.5 million in the new budget, he said over the next five to 10 years it was essential the deficit was turned into a surplus. He said the authority had a 10-year plan to make its utility services self-funding and announced a long-term aim to fully fund depreciation.