City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s long-term financial plan includes $79m in loans, $490m in works, and rates hikes

The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder would need to borrow almost $80 million during the next 10 years and increase rates by between 4 and 5 per cent each year to achieve a $490m capital works program.

The 2025-2035 Long-Term Financial Plan, endorsed by the council at this month’s meeting, omitted several major projects including the Kalgoorlie Golf Course resort, additional stormwater capture and both the Goldfields Oasis and Kalgoorlie Airport master plans.

The document suggests this was due to “unidentified funding sources”, with a focus during the next 10 years on only approving major projects when it has the funding capacity to do so.

The plan, which is an evolving document that could change over time, anticipates a rating strategy of CPI plus 2 per cent, suggesting a 4-5 per cent rates hike each year.

The $490m capital works program included $234m on roads, drainage and footpaths — partly funded by $114m in grants — and $94m on sewerage and wastewater upgrades – partly funded by $58m in loans.

About $40m would be spent on projects including the Goldfields Arts Centre carpark roof structure — wholly funded by a loan— $18m on the Goldfields Oasis pool— partly funded by a $9m loan— $4m on Oasis building works and $22m on parks, ovals and gardening upgrades.

Social and affordable housing, First Nations short-stay accommodation, sobering up and rehabilitation facilities, emergency preparation, rail realignment, precinct development planning and the 101 Brookman Street development were also left out of the plan because of unidentified funding sources.

Cr Terrence Winner expressed his disappointment at the exclusion of some of these projects during this month’s meeting, but ultimately supported the plan.

“I must say that I am not completely settled on this plan,” he said.

“While I’m OK with the majority of what is included in the plan, I feel there are a lot of projects missing at this point which I feel should be considered, and that there are projects listed by officers which need to be more seriously considered by council and require significant reporting and risk analysis prior to advancing.

“This document will continue to evolve and change as priorities and projects do, and because of this, I’ll be supporting this.”

Cr Nardia Turner said the figures in the plan were “eye-watering and ambitious”.

“I think none of us make any apologies at all because we have to start to get our city back on track,” she said.

“That will involve a lot of money and we’ll be knocking on a lot of doors to try and get some support for that.”

The LTFP was unanimously supported by the council and will be reviewed annually.