Indigo Shire Council has adopted a “very lean” 2026/27 budget, with opposing councillors arguing it had failed to strike the right balance for local communities. At council’s 30 June meeting, councillors voted 5-2 in favour of adopting the draft budget released last month. Council heard ten community submissions were received in response to the budget surrounding funding and refurbishment for facilities within the Yackandandah Sports Park, streetscape suggestions and a suggestion for an alternate rating strategy. One of the submissions from a Beechworth local noted the entrance to the town via Sydney Road was “drab and dull” and the cypress and gum trees were a “poor advertisement for the town”. Cr Jane Dowsley shared the concern raised by the Beechworth local and said weeds and faded signage were among the first things that greet residents and visitors to several of Indigo Shire’s towns. “I believe we can and should do better within our existing operational budget to improve these standards,” she said. Seven of the 10 submissions came from within the Yackandandah community and councillors thanked all community members for their feedback. The budget contains $13m in capital works including $4.665m carried forwards. New services to be delivered included $3.26m for road maintenance, $1.665m for caravan park upgrades, $350k for Barkly Park pavilion upgrades and $327k for Chiltern Recreation Reserve lighting upgrades. In opposing the draft budget at the last meeting, Cr Dowsley said the shire approved capital works program was too reliant on borrowings to maintain routine investment, noting $3m of borrowings were slated over the next three years to fund usual capital works. Cr Dowsley voted against adopting the budget with Cr Roberta Horne, who welcomed the significant investment into roads, drainage and footpaths, but said the budget didn’t achieve the right balance between council’s many sectors. “After carefully considering the budget I can’t honestly say this is the balanced, community facing budget I was hoping to support,” she said. “This isn’t a vote against the work gone into preparing the budget, it’s simply an acknowledgement that I couldn’t in a good conscience vote yes. “Every significant investment should demonstrate a clear community benefit, sound reasoning and evidence that we learn from previous decisions so we make better decisions going forward.” Cr Diane Shepheard supported the adoption of the budget, but shared concerns of financial constraints which limited council’s ability on delivering services to aid community needs. “I’m very aware that our outlook is not sustainable for the future and we need to address this through tighter financial management and strategy,” she said. “I think this budget reflects those tight considerations and the fact that something has to change.” Indigo Shire Council planning and corporate services director Greg Pinkerton said council believed it was achievable to reduce rates debt by $1 million over the next three years. "Indigo Shire is one of the higher rates debt councils in Victoria," he said. “When we looked at next year we needed to have a very lean budget.”
