More than $600 million in new funding will be invested in community facilities, roads, footpaths, parks and reserves over the next four years, including $128.25 in 2023/24. Highlights of the 2023/24 capital works program include:

• $38.03 million to improve, upgrade and develop new buildings, including:
  • $9.3 million on continued works for the upgrade of the former Craigieburn Leisure Centre to a new indoor sports facility
  • $2.6 million on completion of the construction of the Kalkallo North Community Hub
  • $2.6 million to commence the construction of the Greenvale Indoor Cricket Centre
  • $2.4 million to complete the construction of the Seabrook Reserve Community Hub.
• $20.01 million to construct, upgrade and maintain roads across the City as well as $6.50 million for footpaths and cycleways and $18.05 million for car parks, including:
  • $7.98 million for local road resurfacing
  • $1.2 million to complete the reconstruction of Trade Park Drive in Tullamarine
  • $0.6 million for continued works on Council's indented parking on narrow streets program
  • $4.8 million on footpath rehabilitation across the city
  • $15 million to continue the construction of the Evans Street multi-deck carpark in Sunbury
  • $2.0 million to complete the Aitken Boulevard Duplication between Marathon Boulevard and Grand Boulevard.
• $26.76 million on land improvements, including park and reserve upgrades, construction of sporting fields and more. This includes:
  • $6.28 million to complete the construction of four rugby league and touch football pitches at the Bridges Recreation Reserve in Craigieburn
    
  • $1.3 million for the continuation of works for the construction of playing fields at the Grand Boulevard Reserve in Craigieburn
  • $1.2 million for the commencement of works for the construction of the Eric Boardman Memorial Reserve athletics track
  • $0.74 million to commence construction of the playing fields at Greenvale Recreation Reserve
  • $0.59 million on works for the improvement of the sub-surface drainage for sportsground surfaces across the municipality.

Section 4.6 of the proposed budget provides more detail of the four-year capital works program, or you can view our infographic.

We will spend $305.81 million to meet the growing demand of a variety of day-to-day services (a net expenditure of $188.91M). Over the next 12 months we will:

• Collect more than 92,000 tonnes of kerbside waste, recycling and organics
• Provide 21,000 hard waste collections
• Undertake more than 43,725 kilometres of street sweeping
• Remove more than 5,995 square metres of graffiti
• Deliver more than 100,000 hours of services for aged residents
• Deliver more than 20,000 meals for people in need
• Host more than 1.2 million visits to our leisure centres
• Loan more than a million library items to more than 18,000 Hume Libraries members
• Deliver more than 26,000 immunisations
• Coordinate 46,000 maternal and child health consultations
• Register more than 26,000 dogs and cats
• Deliver more than 1,200 food safety assessments
• Educate approximately 4,000 three and four year old children in our preschools program.

As part of the 2023/24 budget, we are implementing a new Waste Service Charge.

As part of Council's consultation during the development of the Waste Strategy we sent surveys out to almost 1 in every 4 households. This survey included asking residents if they'd support separating waste charges in the rates notice. We heard from more than 2,200 households, with 57 per cent of ratepayers supporting the separation of charges.

Until now, the cost of managing waste in Hume has been included as part of your rates. However, due to increases in the Victorian Government waste levy and recycling processing fees, the costs of waste and recycling services have increased well above the rate cap.

Additional Victorian Government reform means the waste costs will continue to increase as we roll out new services (such as universal kerbside Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection). Without a waste charge, we’re projecting a shortfall in excess of $100 million over the next 10 years.

Separating waste charges from the general rates will bring us in line with all other Councils across Victoria and allow us to be more transparent about our waste costs, giving you a clearer picture of where your money is going.

To learn more about the Waste Service Charge, visit hume.vic.gov.au/waste-service-charge(External link).

How will this affect me as a residential rate payer?

The Waste Service Charge is not an additional charge to your existing rates. The amount you currently contribute to waste services will be removed from your general rates and be itemised as two charges:

• A kerbside waste fee, which covers bin collection and other household services, and
• A public waste fee, which covers the cost of keeping public spaces clean. This includes the removal of illegally dumped waste, collection of litter and recycling bins in public places, collection of litter from roadsides and reserves, and road and pavement sweeping.

For residential properties, both of these charges are flat fees. Because of this, depending on the Capital Improved Value (CIV) of your property the total amount of your rates bill may change.

Here are some examples of how that may look for residential properties:

Council’s Rating and Revenue Plan identifies the policy rationale, assumption and sources of revenue to fund the services provided to our community, and adequately finance the strategic objectives of Council. This includes:

• rates and charges
• grants from other levels of government
• statutory fees and fines
• user fees
• cash and non-cash contributions from other parties, such as developers and community groups
• interest from investments.

In order to meet the challenges of rising costs of managing waste and recycling and to ensure financial sustainability into the future, Council has decided to separate the cost of waste services from general rates, and is therefore updating the Rating and Revenue Plan alongside the proposed budget. You can read more about this change in the ‘Waste services charge’ heading above.