About
Golden Plains Shire Council’s 2026/27 Budget was adopted by Council at its 26 May Council meeting. The $62 million Budget focuses on balancing financial sustainability with maintaining services and continued investment in projects that are valued by our community.
Prior to the formulation of the Draft Budget, Council undertook a multi‑stage community engagement process, inviting residents to contribute through Budget submissions, an online survey, and Thinktank workshops. From 26 November 2025, community members could lodge written or online submissions, complete a survey highlighting priorities and project ideas, or attend in‑person workshops in Smythesdale and Bannockburn to discuss budget issues directly with Council’s Finance Team.
An additional online session in January 2026 summarised “what we heard” from the engagement period. All feedback—alongside projected revenue, strategic priorities, and community needs—was considered in shaping recommendations for the draft Budget. Council then reviewed formal submissions at the February 2026 meeting before presenting the final Budget for adoption in May 2026.
The 2026/27 Budget has been prepared based on the adopted principles within the 2025-2029 Council Plan and Financial Plan, with rate revenue modelled at a 2.75% average rate cap increase in accordance with the Minister for Local Government’s announcement in December 2025.
Golden Plains Shire Council is preparing for its next Budget. Every year, Councillors and Council officers work together to prepare an annual budget that shows what income we expect to receive and how we expect to allocate that money. This document shows how council rates will be spent on providing services and building and maintaining facilities for our community. It also highlights the key initiatives Council will deliver to our community throughout the year.
To prepare a balanced budget, we need to ensure it can fund the core services and strategic objectives contained in the Council Plan, along with any additional initiatives.
The development of the annual budget is heavily influenced by the goals and objectives set out in the Council Plan and the strategies and plans Council has adopted. The Council Plan is developed in consultation with the community every four years.
Council is seeking input from our community for the preparation of the 2026/27 Budget.
Council has an Integrated Planning Framework that aligns its operational, corporate and strategic plans to deliver core services and achieve sustainable improvements for the community. The framework includes short, medium and long-term plans that set the direction of everything we do.
The Budget forms an important part of Council’s Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework. This framework ensures that the Budget is developed in response to Council Plan priorities and specifies the required amount to fund Council services and initiatives over the next 12 months, and subsequent three financial years.
The framework guides Council in identifying community needs and aspirations with the budget prepared each year to fund Council Plan priorities and Council services and initiatives.
The Fair Go Rates system (rate-capping) means that the annual increase in total rates revenue is much lower than inflation and the increases in contract costs. This creates a gap between income and expenses, which reduces Council’s cash reserves. This makes it more difficult each year to keep providing the services the community needs with the money that we have available.
Council cannot pass the financial gap directly through to the users of services without considering the cost pressures that they too face. The increase in fees often doesn’t cover the cost increase in delivering each service.
Council has a large asset base which includes a road network spanning over 1,700 kilometres, a significant number of bridges, buildings, parks, open spaces and community facilities which must be maintained to ensure they are fit for use by the community. This is a major challenge due to the size of the asset base.
The Financial Plan is developed to align Council’s financial capacity with long term service objectives. It provides 10-year financial projection on how the actions in the Council Plan are funded to achieve the Community Vision. The Financial Plan is developed incorporating asset management requirements to ensure alignment with the Asset Plan by ensuring that asset renewal, upgrade and maintenance programs are financially sustainable over the long term.