BENDIGO'S council is starting to feel economic turbulence as inflation and other costs climb.
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The Bendigo Art Gallery's Elvis exhibition has helped keep the City of Greater Bendigo's finances in the black last financial quarter, or $5.3 million better off than it expected to be.
Parking fines have also helped.
More people are heading out and about in a post-pandemic city and keeping parking inspectors busy, a quarterly finance report suggests.
People are probably out of practice paying for parking, Cr Margaret O'Rourke said.
"It easily slips your mind and when we were in that COVID period it was a much quieter time," she said.
But skyrocketing inflation is beginning to eat into the council's spending on materials and services, council accountants have said.
They are bracing in case inflation rises higher than predicted.
"The current forecast may be optimistic given the demand being experienced across the community for materials and services - with prices sometimes moving quickly," council accountants said
The Reserve Bank of Australia has forecast inflation at around 7.75 per cent this year and to recede to three per cent over 2024.
The council cannot raise rates - its main source of income - on residents above a 1.75 per cent cap this financial year.
It is warning that its services to ratepayers could be hit if the gap between inflation and what money it can raise remains as far apart as it is right now.
OTHER NEWS:
The council hopes grants from other levels of government will help keep it $8.2 million up on where it hopes to be at the end of this financial year.
The latest budget figures do not take into account the period of flooding that struck this spring.
Greater Bendigo escaped the sorts of flooding seen in the Loddon and Campaspe Shires but the damage was still "significant," council accountants said.
The damage has encompassed buildings, pathways, roads and drainage. The council spent money on waste disposal and an emergency relief centre at the Bendigo showgrounds.
Its total flood bill would be an estimated $10 million but that was before factoring in insurance and funding from other levels of government.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
