Our draft 2026-27 Delivering What Matters Most Budget and Long-Term Capital Works Plan will deliver better roads, essential services and infrastructure upgrades.
Both documents were shaped by extensive community feedback for our Council Plan, as well as three years of community-nominated spending priorities. From these conversations, we've built a strong sense of what is important to you.
You nominated roads and drainage as your number one priority, so our Budget proposes increasing our spending in this area by 19 per cent or $7.5 million. This is on top of last year's 72 per cent increase in spending on local roads.
There's also $1 million in community capital grants for projects that will strengthen the health, wellbeing and resilience of our community.
The Delivering What Matters Most Budget also features a total of $47.5 million for capital works, including $1.4 million for footpaths, $500,000 to upgrade Rosebud Memorial Hall and $300,000 for our urban forest project.
Waste charges are proposed to increase for many ratepayers, partly due to a State Government-mandated roll out of new bins and bin lids.
For the first time, Council has also prepared a Long-Term Capital Works Plan, providing a long-range outlook on the key priorities and projects in the pipeline.
While capital works plans have traditionally focussed on short-term budget cycles, this new Long Term Capital Works Plan has a 10-year horizon to better align Council's investment in infrastructure with the need to maintain current assets and deliver community priorities.
Year 1 of the Plan forms part of the Delivering What Matters Most Budget and is proposed for adoption. Capital works projects earmarked for future years are indicative only, as community needs and priorities continue to evolve.
Community consultation opened today on our draft Delivering What Matters Most Budget and Long-Term Capital Works Plan. Here's how you can have your say: mornpen.vic.gov.au/budgetcapworks
Quotes attributable to Acting Mayor Councillor Paul Pingiaro:
"In this tough economic climate, we are focussed on getting the basics right. Households across our community are feeling cost-of-living pressure, and Council is no different. That makes it more important than ever that every dollar is spent carefully.
"This draft Delivering What Matters Most Budget has been shaped by the feedback we have received over recent years through both our Council Plan and earlier budget consultations.
"Rather than asking the community to nominate priorities all over again, we have prepared a draft Budget that shows how previous feedback has shaped our spending proposals.
"This draft Delivering What Matters Most Budget and Long-Term Capital Works Plan focus on what the community has told us matters most: essential services, sound infrastructure and careful financial management.
"Our Long-Term Capital Works Plan is intended to be a living document that can evolve over time and help guide each year's capital works program."
