DOUGLAS Shire Mayor Julia Leu says Council is on track to meet a budget surplus by 2019/20 after announcing it will be completely debt free by June 30.

Mayor Julia Leu said her team had resolved to repay loans held with the Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) by the end of the financial year, which were attributed to Council during the deamalgamation process.

Council currently owes QTC just under $2 million for loans taken out by Cairns Regional Council to fund infrastructure projects in the Douglas Shire during the amalgamation period.

Ratepayers will be saved almost $400,000 over the remaining life of the loans as a result of the early repayments, according to Leu.

“This is a huge milestone that demonstrates sound strategic financial planning by this Council,” Leu said.

“Due to the diligence and financial planning skills of our staff, we’ll be a debt-free Council less than four years after deamalgamation which is an achievement many detractors thought we would never realise.

“To achieve this in such a short amount of time and realise a significant saving for ratepayers is testament to the long-term prudent financial management of this Council.”

The Council’s latest financial report also showed an improvement of more than $400,000 on the budget.

Leu said operating revenue for the first nine months of the 2016/17 financial year exceeds budget expectations by $240,000, with operating expenditure under budget by $227,000.

“Once again, these savings are largely due to the efforts of our staff to obtain value for money on behalf of our communities combined with support for a strong local economy.”

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