Brace yourself Lismore & surrounds, we are in for a bumpy landing. That is the summary from last night's Extraordinary Lismore City Council (LCC) Meeting when the 2021/22 Budget was passed for public exhibition.

Normally, the Lismore App looks for the silver lining, some sort of good news to balance the bad but this time we are struggling to find it. The brutal truth is that the next twelve months is going to be tough and then there may be some more pain to come.

The bottom line is LCC's net operating result before grants and contributions is a loss of $20 million-plus the council's cash position is minus $207,000. Council can not afford to maintain and run its own assets. For example, another year of substandard roads. As Executive Director of Infrastructure Services Peter Jeuken said "It is not what we would like to deliver but there is not enough money to do the job. A large number of roads will fall into poor or very poor condition."

The solution? Council has to increase its revenue and look at ways to minimise the losses of assets like GSAC, the Lismore Airport and the Quarry which only add more pressure to a broken system that is in desperate need of surgery, not a band-aid.

You could sell the loss-making asset but how much would you sell it for? If you were selling your house would you accept 50% less than its value? Plus in today's business environment would you even find a buyer? Food for thought to those that say "just sell them". Even closing down a business has costs involved.

How can a council increase revenue to put itself back in the black after cutting costs to the bone? Increase rates through a Special Rates Variation, grow the city through a population increase so more ratepayers or through contributions, usually through business investment.

Councillor Neil Marks said that we needed to put pressure on landowners to release blocks so people can build more residential homes. While progress is good for growth it is not a short term solution but more 3-5 years. There is already a shortage of builders and tradespeople in the Northern Rivers.

We move on to contributions from new business. This is also not a quick solution as you need willing people to come forward and invest in our region and then you need quick D.A. approval to build or construct the business. If you ask around the D.A. approval process is more like the tortoise than the hare but that can be blamed on a staffing issue due to tight budgets.

Then there are the words Special Rate Variation.

No one likes paying more taxes, especially more taxes to pay off some previous poor decisions. However, is it the SRV we have to have? A little bit like Paul Keating's recession we had to have in the early '90s. An SRV is as popular as an STD but is it a necessary cure to our financial problems.

Coming into an election year no one wants to mention the letters but it was stated that council needs to find ways to increase revenue and there are not a lot of options.

Projects that have been in LCC's Strategic Plan, like the Lismore Park, have been shelved for the time being. Councillor Nancy Casson led the charge for council to say no to Government funding on any project that involves more running and maintenance costs for council. Cnr Casson said, "we cannot afford it and we shouldn't be adding to our assets." This was supported by all councillors.

This dire budget situation is not about playing the blame game, all councillors conceded this is not good enough for the ratepayers of 2480. As a community do we need to look forward together so we can get 'back in the black' so Lismore can continue to grow into the thriving small city we know it can be. The vision is further away in terms of time, however, we should never lose sight of what is possible.

Is this the silver lining from a dark place?

The Lismore City Council Draft Operational Budget 2021/22will be on public exhibition for 28 days soon at Your Say Lismore.