COTTESLOE council has set itself the goal of having a balanced budget to enter the 2017-18 financial year , after conducting its mid-year budget review.
“In order to ensure that there are no adverse ongoing financial impacts of any of the new projects proposed, none of the new expenditure items have ongoing financial implications beyond 2016-17,” a report at the meeting last month said.
The report said the review showed a “significant” extra $267,174 in the income initially estimated by the council for the 2016-17 budget.
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READ NOWIt said the money had come from some early income and projects finished ahead of schedule that did not need payment in the budget after June 30, 2016.
New revenue included $219,000 for road works transferred to later years, $210,000 for beach access paths and $76,000 less spent on planning contractors.
However, there have been new projects, costs and expenditure that decreased available cash in the six months since the budget started.
They include $288,000 on Lesser Hall works, $140,000 for the Indiana lease legal fees and $54,164 for the new three-bin garbage collection system.
Overall, the increase in available cash of $2.904 million compared to the $2.943 million loss of revenue for the first six months of 2016-17.
Councillors approved the report’s recommendation to adopt the review’s changes to the town’s budget so that the near-balanced accounts could be taken into the second half of 2016-17.