There was a great deal of debate at last night's Lismore City Council meeting. However, in the end, the $301 million 2024/25 Budget was adopted, albeit with some additions that will affect the bottom line, and the Rates and Charges for 2024/25 were also adopted, including the 4.7% rate peg increase.

There was a debate over the increase in Waste Management charges. The three bin pick up costs will rise by approximately 50%, which was something noted by Councillors Guise and Ekins.

John Hartley Manager Finance for Lismore City Council (LCC) said that an external review had been completed and showed that the prices charged were not the true prices needed for LCC to cover the cost of providing the service to the community.

"Waste collection was being subsidised by waste disposal. So, this brings it back into the line where it should be," Mr Hartley explained.

Councillor (Cr) Guise spoke against adopting the Rates and Charges.

"I don’t feel that we’ve adequately consulted with our community about this very significant increase in charges. It's buried in the business paper, but we didn't actually go out there and genuinely engage with our community about this."

Cr Ekins also mentioned the 50% increase in waste charges and spoke about the outsourcing of our garbage collection.

"In fact, we're stripping a million dollars from our budget paying a private company to collect our waste and take it to Queensland instead of investing in our own employees, our own trucks, our own infrastructure, and now we're increasing the waste services by a significant amount."

Cr Rob also voted against adopting the Rates and Charges, wanting to keep the costs to ratepayers the same. Part of Cr Rob's criticism was creating new assets funded through grants that will then be added to councils budget to maintain it in years to come.

Mr Hartley said that it would have an impact on the budget in future years.

Cr Gordon talked about LCC running itself like a business and putting the last twenty years of tens of millions of dollars of debt behind it.

"Have we forgotten that you sold the fleet (of trucks) because you couldn't pay your wages? Have you forgotten those days? You know why? Because you don't apply best practice. Every financial discussion that we've had starts with one premise. This business is based on ideals, not on best practice."

The 2024/25 Rates and Charges were easily supported with a 7 (Crs Bird, Colby, Gordon, Hall, Jensen, Bing and Krieg) to 3 (Crs Guise, Rob and Ekins) vote. Cr Darlene Cook was away on approved leave.

The 2024/25 Budget discussion lasted well over an hour, as amendment after amendment was discussed, and confusion rained until finally, the Budget was adopted with four additions.

Jyllie Jackson will be a very happy person as the Lismore Lantern Parade will receive an additional $5,000 cash and $5,000 in kind from Lismore City Council to help put on the city's premiere event in 2025.

This increase brings the total commitment from LCC to $20,000 cash and $20,000 in kind for road closure and security.

Cr Gordon said that every city on the planet has a signature event. Grafton has the Jacaranda Festival, Tamworth has the Country Music Festival, and Lismore has the Lantern Parade.

Cr Rob tried to bring an amendment to remove the Lismore Lantern Parade funding but did not receive a seconder.

Sharp Disposal Bins, which will cost council $25,000 to install and maintain, was also an added item from Cr Guise.

Cr Bird had $55,000 approved for a Flood Awareness Week to run in the next twelve months. This would be used to increase residents' flood knowledge and flood literacy, such as river heights and what happens in our city when it floods.

Cr Jensen put forward another amendment to include the increased costs of vets desexing stray dogs and cats. A male dog costs $360, a female dog $410, a male cat $230 and a female cat $300.

Cr Guise added $1,100 for the Magpie Centre administration to host community barbecues and to publicise the events.

Cr Hall was seeking $30,000 to help Eltham School make it safer to pick-up and drop-off children on Eltham Road, and Cr Jensen $2.4 million to create an exercise path between Dunoon and Modanville.

Eltham will be funded through existing road funding, and a grant will be sought for the exercise path.

At the end of 90 minutes, the forecast budget surplus of $220,000 was now $130,000. In year's past, it was a case of the debt only getting bigger.

The 2024/25 Budget was adopted with Crs Colby, Guise, Rob, Hall, Jensen, Bing and Krieg voting for and Crs Bird, Guise and Ekins against.

The next Lismore City Council meeting will be held in two weeks time, Tuesday, July 9 at 6pm.