MidCoast Council has referred its draft 2025-26 financial statements to the NSW Audit Office for independent audit.
Council’s projected consolidated operating result from operations is a surplus of $69.312 million.
General Manager Adrian Panuccio explained that while a surplus in one financial year is good news, it doesn’t mean that the funds are spare.
“We have multi-year projects, and these funds are allocated to works detailed in Council’s four-year Delivery Program,” said Mr Panuccio.
“What it does indicate is that staff are managing the budget well, which was a particular challenge over 2025-26 when we were dealing with upfront costs for a large number of emergency flood recovery works.
“We have started receiving funds for these emergency works as well as reconstruction works, and this has boosted this year’s surplus.”
Council manages three main funds which have different income sources and purposes – general, water, sewer.
The general fund is where rates go and it is used for things like road reconstruction and maintenance; parks; and public toilets. Before capital grants and contributions, that fund had a $1.457m surplus. While that may seem like a lot of money, $1m buys about 1km of road reconstruction. With grants and contributions included, the general fund had a surplus of $47.229. This largely represents flood recovery funding received to date.
The water fund comes from water charges and had a $7.160m surplus, while the sewer fund had a surplus of $14.923m. The surplus for both funds includes capital grants and contributions received. A number of sewer infrastructure projects are underway, and a water security project at Kiwarrak for off-river water storage is in the pipeline.
Water and sewer funds can’t be used for other purposes such as roadworks.
“These funds work very differently. Water and sewer services must meet strict criteria, so the charge to users must be enough to meet or exceed that legal standard,” explained Mr Panuccio.
“On the other hand, Council services like roadworks come out of the general fund. That means we need to do the most we can with a limited source of income.
“The funds we have for roads aren’t enough to do all the work that’s needed. We’re doing a range of things to close the funding gap as much as we can. This includes seeking grants from other levels of government, advocating for a fairer go for regional councils, and reviewing our Developer Contribution Plans.”
It’s important to note that these are not the audited financial statements. Once Council receives the auditor’s reports, the statements will go on public exhibition, with comments from the community welcomed.
