BCC Budget

[ozbob]

From Brisbanetimes click here!

Brisbane parks to go wireless

Brisbane parks to go wireless
Tony Moore
June 8, 2011 - 11:24AM

Free wi-fi will be rolled out in more Brisbane City Council parks in one of the only real surprises in Lord Mayor Graham Quirk's first budget.

Cr Quirk has allocated $2 million to set up a wi-fi service in 20 Brisbane parks, following a trial in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens in the city.

However, Cr Quirk said the biggest ticket items in this year's council budget remained the Legacy Way toll tunnel between Toowong and Kelvin Grove and, in the longer term, improvements to Kingsford Smith Drive.

Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner said wi-fi was the way of the future and the council wanted to be involved.

"The increase in mobile devices and businesses providing this service is evidence of this, so we will be looking for the busiest parks in this area," he said.

Cr Schrinner said wi-fi services were already available in Brisbane's Botanical Gardens on a trial basis, but it will be available in 20 Brisbane parks by June 2012.

The budget has seen $456 million allocated for the first stage of works on the Legacy Way tunnel and $552.8 million for improvements to the suburban road network.

The average residential rates rise is 1.79 per cent for home owners, the same as the rates increase for commercial properties, which was about half of Brisbane's CPI increase of 3.6 per cent.

It takes the average residential rates bill up $21 a year to $1212.26, which Cr Quirk said was recognition that people were "doing it tough".

"We know people are doing it tough and we've made tough decisions to ensure we continue to deliver value for money services for those living in Brisbane's suburbs," he sad.

Cr Schrinner, the council's finance chairman, said it was the lowest rates increase since the budget after the 1974 floods and then during a "rates freeze" when Sallyanne Atkinson was mayor in 1988.

"So over the last 35 years there have only ever been two other occasions where you have had a rates increase this low," he said.

About 20 per cent of households will pay less in their general rates than they did last year.

While the residential and commercial rates increase was low, revenue from council's fees and charges is projected to increase from $158.7 million to $189 million in 2011-12, up by $30 million.

The council will pay $94 million in interest in its borrowings of $1.43 billion this year, however it is earning $93.7 million on its cash investments.

Cr Quirk again defended the CityCycle scheme, despite it earning just over $450,000 in revenue at a cost of $2.4 million.

"CityCycle will be fine," he said.

"It has grown 20 per cent a month at the minute and it will continue to grow."

Cr Quirk has also allocated $5 million for improving disability services in the first of his five-year disability access plan.

The Brisbane City Council budget at a glance:

    Capital infrastructure spending has been kept at similar level to last year - $1.5 billion;
    $553 million on suburban roads;
    $97 million towards restoring City Hall;
    $465 million towards public transport; including $56 million to provide 100 buses by March 2012;
    $193 million on bus and ferry terminals;
    the rates cap remains at 7.5 per cent;
    $37 million set aside for voluntary redundancies for over 100 staff;
    $35 million will be spent repairing and building new footpaths, over the $19 million spent in 2010-11, but including money to be reclaimed through flood disaster funding;
    $21 million to buy 500 hectares of bushland;and
    Brisbane Future Fund grows to $177.9 million from start-up figure of $135 million.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-parks-to-go-wireless-20110608-1frw5.html#ixzz1Oe0irg5v

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Small rises, big debt in Graham Quirk's first Brisbane City Council budget

Small rises, big debt in Graham Quirk's first Brisbane City Council budget

    Sarah Vogler, Councils Reporter
    From: The Courier-Mail
    June 08, 2011 11:07AM

Cr Quirk has described the 2011/12 $2.9 billion Brisbane City Council budget as a 'back to basics' budget focused on suburban housekeeping.

Ratepayers have been handed an average increase of 1.79 per cent, about $5.30 more per quarter with more than 43,000 households seeing a reduction in their bills this year.

That does not include water and sewerage, however, with Queensland Urban Utilities announcing a 6.47 per cent increase from July.

Net debt will increase from an estimated $1 billion in 2010/11 or $920 per ratepayer to $1.43 billion in 2011/12, about $1305 per ratepayer.

Council will spend about $1.15 billion on infrastructure, $465 on public transport and $129 million on reducing flooding.

About $456 million will be spent on the Legacy Way tunnel and $97 million will be spent on the restoration of the city's crumbling City Hall.

The city's flood recovery will be given a $116.7 million funding injection.

Finance Chair Cr Adrain Schrinner said council would continue to cut back on everything from staff costs to cleaning and travel to achieve an estimated $120 million in internal savings.

About $37 million has been set aside for voluntary redundancies while catering costs will be reduced by 6 per cent and travel costs down 22 per cent.

"We are not borrowing to keep the lights on," Cr Quirk said of the rising net debt.

"We are borrowing to build for the future. Council's borrowing program is driven, in the main, by our commitments to long-term projects such as Legacy Way, the Go-Between Bridge, CLEM7 and the Save City Hall Project."

[#Metro]

Cr Quirk again defended the CityCycle scheme, despite it earning just over $450,000 in revenue at a cost of $2.4 million.

"CityCycle will be fine," he said.

"It has grown 20 per cent a month at the minute and it will continue to grow."

Sounds a lot like 'head in the sand".

20% a month... must be from an extremely low base

[Jonno]

Did anyone notice the graphs behind the Lord Mayor at his press conference? The PT graph showed funding plateauing whist road funding was increasing exponentially. It really says a lot about this Administrstion policies.

Also why is there funding for Clem 7 and the Go Between Bridge? These were supposed to be privately funded? Yet I am still paying for them.

[ozbob]

Did anyone notice the graphs behind the Lord Mayor at his press conference? The PT graph showed funding plateauing whist road funding was increasing exponentially. It really says a lot about this Administrstion policies.

Also why is there funding for Clem 7 and the Go Between Bridge? These were supposed to be privately funded? Yet I am still paying for them.

I wonder if any of the opposition or media asked the obvious questions?  Probably not ....

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Campbell Newman's tunnel vision will have to wait because his successor, Graham Quirk, can't find the funds

Campbell Newman's tunnel vision will have to wait because his successor, Graham Quirk, can't find the funds

    Robyn Ironside
    From: The Courier-Mail
    June 09, 2011 12:00AM

Clem 7 may be last of Campbell Newman's tunnels for a while

CAMPBELL Newman's vision for a ring-road of tunnels around Brisbane city has stalled with his Lord Mayoral replacement failing to find any funds for the final link in the scheme.

The east-west link from Buranda to Toowong has been pushed down the list of road infrastructure priorities by Graham Quirk, who has declared an upgrade of Kingsford Smith Drive more important.

In Mr Newman's last budget, $1.4 million was allocated to the cross-river tunnel for a traffic activity review but the study was ditched due to the floods.

Cr Quirk's first budget yesterday failed to restore those funds despite committing $456 million to Northern Link - now known as Legacy Way - due for completion in late 2013.

A spokesman for the Lord Mayor said the east-west link was "still on the agenda" for 2021 but Kingsford Smith Drive was "now the next priority".

Cr Quirk earmarked $1.5 million for a planning study of Kingsford Smith Drive and will continue to press the Federal Government to contribute.

"It carries twice the amount of freight of other roads and so it is very important with a very significant gross domestic product return," he said.

Overall, more than $1 billion has been allocated for road and infrastructure improvements accounting for nearly 45 per cent of the total budget spend.

A record $553 million will go on upgrading suburban roads and intersections, including $65 million for resurfacing, $26 million for footpaths and $2.2 million for traffic calming in 27 streets.

Dangerous level crossings at Bald Hills and Geebung will have to wait another three years for any significant improvements, with Cr Quirk blaming the State Government for the delay.

"Fixing rail crossings are a State Government responsibility, however, we're prepared to pay for 50 per cent of the cost to make it safer for the motorists risking their lives daily at these dangerous crossings," he said.

Public transport attracted $465 million, with a third of the money subsidising buses and ferries following an 8 per cent drop in revenue this year.

Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the revenue shortfall could be attributed to the January floods, which put CityCats out of action for over a month and also halted buses.

A 19th CityCat ferry will hit the water in the coming year and two new terminals are due for completion, at Hamilton Northshore and Teneriffe.

[ozbob]

Media release 9 June 2011

SEQ: Brisbane City Council Budget - more transport failure

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers says the 2011/12 Brisbane City Council Budget continues down the road of flawed and failing car centric non-solutions (1).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Despite the spectacular failure of the Clem7 road tunnel the Brisbane City Council bases most of its budget on more of the same - the Legacy Way road tunnel. Despite vague promises of up to 2000 express buses per day on it there are no connections for buses Between the Legacy Way and the busway network confirmed (2).  This bus spin committment is a ruse."

"The solution to Kingsford Smith Drive is to start to utilise the Doomben rail corridor properly. This disjoint highlights admirably why public transport and transport planning and responsibility needs to be removed from Councils and properly coordinated and appropriate transport solutions implemented at a state/national level to avoid costly duplications and failure as we have seen with the Clem7 road tunnel."

"Anyone at the Lord Mayor's budget press conference yesterday would have noted the graphs behind the Lord Mayor showing funding for public transport plateauing whilst road funding was increasing exponentially. This says a lot about this Council's policies and real priorities."

"Brisbane Transport has some of the highest 'dead running' for  bus systems in Australia (3).  Money simply wasted.  Simple obvious fixes to the CityCycle scheme are apparently unable to be implemented because of political differences (4). It is little wonder that the community is becoming increasingly frustrated with the long term waste and incompetence on show for all in this budget."

References:

1. http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/news-publications/Council-annual-plan-and-budget-2011-12/index.htm

2. http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6053.msg57350#msg57350

3. 8 Jun 2011: SEQ: Dead running is dead money http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6155.0

4. 8 Jun 2011: SEQ: City Cycle scheme - how to fix it without consultants fees http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6156.0

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Tunnel to double council debt

Tunnel to double council debt
Tony Moore
June 9, 2011 - 3:00AM

Brisbane City Council's debt will double in 2014-15 thanks to the $1.7 billion Legacy Way tunnel, budget documents reveal.

But Lord Mayor Graham Quirk insists it will be a temporary spike in debt, before federal government commitments are met.

The council's debt servicing ratio - its ability to pay its debtors - will increase from 6.3 per cent of its total revenue in 2011-12, to 25.1 per cent in 2015-16.

That will mean more than a quarter of the council's revenue in 2015-16 will be used to pay back its Legacy Way debt after the tunnel's completion in 2014.

At the same time, ratepayers' debt will rise from $1305 per person in 2011-12 to $2057 in 2014-15.

However, Cr Quirk said that debt would be largely serviced by the federal government in 2016, when its $400 million contribution is received.

Cr Quirk said the council simply carried the weight of borrowing until that time.

"The final $400 million is being paid in 2016. They have given us $100 million and that is when the final payment is due," he said.

However, Cr Quirk insisted going ahead with the tunnel project was non-negotiable because traffic congestion in Brisbane's western suburbs had to be tackled.

"If we didn't build the project, no-one would," he said.

"The federal government is chipping in $500 million and we thank them for one third of the project's costs and the state government is putting in nothing.

"We do not get the final payment until after the tunnel is completed, but this development has to go ahead to tackle traffic congestion."

Cr Quirk yesterday raised average residential and commercial rates by 1.79 per cent, one of the lowest rates rises since the 1974 flood.

However, he rejected suggestions the low rates rise was part of a pre-election budget. Yesterday's budget was Cr Quirk's first - and last - before the March 2012 election.

"This is a budget which is right for the times," he said.

"And I have set the budget based on the community feedback I have been getting."

Labor's mayoral candidate Ray Smith said Legacy Way should be deferred because of increasing debt levels.

"We expect that by 2015 [the debt] will be around $2 billion," he said.

"That is going to cost $4 million a week to service and that $4 million could be well better spent in our parks, on our local roads and in our community."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/tunnel-to-double-council-debt-20110608-1fsuo.html#ixzz1Ohmiq9S6

[dwb]

Public transport attracted $465 million, with a third of the money subsidising buses and ferries following an 8 per cent drop in revenue this year.

I presume that includes all funds SPENT and no funds EARNT??

So then Translink must be paying Council ~$400 million of that to run services and then how much to buy the buses?

The Libs really like to get creative with the books don't they!

[#Metro]

"Anyone at the Lord Mayor's budget press conference yesterday would have noted the graphs behind the Lord Mayor showing funding for public transport plateauing whilst road funding was increasing exponentially. This says a lot about this Council's policies and real priorities."

SCANDAL SCANDAL!!!