Indigo Shire's biggest funding grants in its history have resulted in one of the largest capital works programs.
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The 2021-2022 draft budget will include a cash deficit result of $4.5 million but "council will still achieve its long term financial plan expectations for closing cash".
Councillor Larry Goldsworthy said the $15.8 million capital works budget was "the likes of which we haven't had before".
"We're putting $110,000 into direct COVID recovery," he said.
"A lot of the cash deficit is due to the carryover of capital works - we're still in a very good financial condition.
"I'm extremely hopeful that the Epic mountain bike track will get underway ... that will bring benefits to our local community."
Council will borrow $1 million to fund Council's portion of the Beechworth/Yackandandah Epic mountain bike project.
Other big projects include the $2 million Chiltern Community Hub, just over half a million dollars for the annual resealing program, a caravan parks masterplan and completion of the Beechworth to Yackandandah Rail Trail.
Cr Bernard Gaffney and Cr Roberta Horne voted against the draft budget going out to comment, raising issue with the funding for cycle projects over shire-wide infrastructure.
Cr Gaffney pointed out footpaths and cycle-ways are "lumped together" in budget documents but $129,000 was proposed to be spent on footpaths in comparison to $3.65 million for cycle-ways.
"It's just a massive amount of money on cycle-ways and what pays the penalty? Footpaths," he said. Cr Sophie Price disagreed with criticisms of the budget and reiterated that it was poised for pandemic recovery.
"I think it would be a stretch to say that this isn't a recovery budget; I think it's clearly reflected," she said.
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"If Councillors wanted a particular focus to footpaths, because they thought that was in some way about recovery, well we could have heard that in the budget, and maybe we'll hear that in some of the feedback that we'll get from the community.
"But I really think it is a budget that is about recovery.
"It's a completely different budget than where we were catering for COVID, and we're still managing to put $110,000 into that recovery."
The draft budget with a 1.5 per cent rate increase will go to public exhibition before being adopted in June.
