Each year, Council is required to develop a four-year budget. The budget outlines the resources necessary to maintain and improve infrastructure, and deliver projects and services which are valued by our community.

Planning is underway for the 2022-23 Council Budget, and we want to hear from the Mount Alexander Shire community about what its priorities are.

The largest source of income for Council are rates and government grants. Rates provide critical revenue for Council to improve infrastructure and deliver projects and services valued by our community.

This year the Mount Alexander Shire Council prepared a budget of $41.48 million. This revenue paid to manage and maintain local foot and cycling paths, roads, bridges and drains, rubbish and recycling collection, delivering maternal and child health care programs, aged care and disability services, youth programs, emergency relief and recovery, animal control, planning, tourism services, the maintenance and improvement of play spaces, public gardens and more. The diagram below shows how many dollars were allocated to each key area for every one hundred dollars spent.

This year we undertook the Your Community, Your Vision campaign which was the most extensive community engagement project that Council has ever conducted. The campaign informed the Council Plan 2021-2025 and the Financial Plan 2021/22–2030/31.

The new Council Plan has laid out three 'Pillars' and three 'Principles' under which we will deliver those services and initiatives.

The community feedback strongly informed the Council Plan and sets out the work Council will undertake in the next four years.

We would like your feedback on the priority areas of the Council Plan that we should focus on for the 2022-2023 financial year. See how you can help below.

Our Pillars - what we want to achieve

• A healthy, connected and inclusive community
• An environment for people and nature
• A resilient and growing local economy

Our Principles - how we will work

• We are engaging genuinely with the community
• We are always improving
• We are delivering together

Substantial parts of the budget are already committed to ongoing operations, and delivering regular services and existing projects, and the existing rates cap limits spending levels.

Beyond those, and other constraints, community input at this early stage can help shape and prioritise projects and strategies that can help us work together to reach our vision of a healthy, connected shire.

We want to better understand your priorities for Council activities, so here's a fun new tool we’d like you to try!

You have 100 'points' to allocate, and each of the new Council Plan's thirteen objectives will cost you ten points. You can't pick them all, and your choices will help us understand the community's priorities.

Please note, your choices will not directly affect budget decisions, but the results of all feedback will be provided to Councillors for their consideration during the budget process.