Property owners in Albury are facing an average increase of $147 for rates, waste and water charges under their city council's draft budget for 2024-25.
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The council at its meeting on Monday April 22 adopted its draft operational plan for the coming financial year.
It is based on Albury Council taking up the full 4.7 per cent rate peg set by the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.
Under that scenario, the average residential rate for 2024-25 will be $1547, having risen by $66 or 4.4 per cent.
Once rates and charges for water, wastewater and waste are combined the overall increase will be $147.
Former deputy mayor David Thurley was the only councillor to comment on the draft budget, he pointed to a favourable comparison for Albury before noting the blueprint was now subject to public submissions until May 24.
"I noted that in NSW we have the sixth lowest charges for....water and wastewater, often people are struggling but we know that this council does its best to keep our costs down and keep them under control and not pass on anything we don't have to pass on," Cr Thurley said.
"There will be plenty of opportunities (to comment), there will be an ad in The Border Mail, I know our CEO will attend a number of business meetings and community meetings and we also have of course our Have Your Say and the Albury newsletter, so please if you've got anything to say about this, may sure you get it in by the deadline."
An operating budget surplus of $1.05 million is forecast, a turnaround from the $8.835 deficit predicted for the 2023-24 financial plan.
The move from red to black is attributed to a $5.5 million depreciation expense decrease, related to roads and stormwater assets, as well as $5 million improvement in the operating result for water and wastewater.
Its predicted rates will bring in $3 million over 2024-25 with gains also coming from waste recycling ($1.6 million), Albury airport ($1.2 million), term deposits ($1.1 million) and Albury Entertainment Centre ($400,000).
Employee costs are put at $4.1 million with the city having unfavourable results for IT software, utility and leases ($910,000) and the extended Albury pool season ($320,000).
The council also at the meeting endorsed a draft submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry examining local government's ability to fund infrastructure.
The city argued the rate peg does not allow councils to adjust rates to reflect their costs, fails to take account of extreme weather fallout and ignores actual inflation for operating costs.
Cr Thurley said: "The rate peg is done on an historical basis, so you look at the last two years' data and you tell us the rate peg is 4.9 per cent, inflation goes up seven per cent in the year, so the way that they've calculated the rate peg has just been doing councils in the whole time."
Meanwhile, Albury Council's new deputy chief executive infrastructure, planning and environment Bridgett Leopold attended her first meeting.
She sat alongside incumbent Brad Ferris, who retires from June 30, at the u-shaped table with councillors.
Ms Leopold has previously been deputy inspector-general in the Commonwealth's water compliance office as well as executive officer for the Riverina and Murray Joint Organisation and commercial manager at Mars Australia.
