Council’s debt now made public thanks to Cr Wright

The financial debt of Central Coast Council is now showing in publicly available financial statements, thanks to Councillor Jared Wright.

In November, as the councillors adopted the monthly financial and investment statements, Wright asked for a better reporting of the debt in future.

In December, he reminded the meeting that he wanted to see a line item on the debt Council is under. 

He said he understood the December meeting was early and he had only asked in November but he expected it to be included in 2025.

Sure enough, at the first meeting of the Council in 2025, held on February 28, the financial report included its total borrowings.

“As at 31 December 2024 Council has borrowings totalling $201.4M, across all Funds, and including the remaining Emergency Loan that is due to be fully paid in November 2025,” the report noted.

The below Table summarises outstanding loan balances by Fund. 

The $145M of total debt relates to the Water and Sewer Fund’s infrastructure assets. 

It includes $30M to fund the Mardi Water Treatment Plant major upgrade. 

This is a major multi-year project costing $82.5M.

There is a further $20M to be drawn down. 

Interest costs associated with these loans are funded through the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) pricing determination for water rates.

Another $6.6M of the total debt relates to the Drainage Fund.

This will become General Fund debt from 2026/27.

In 2020 Council obtained Emergency Loans totalling $150M. 

These loans were required to finance Council’s working capital, cash reserves, maturing debt facilities and capital expenditure. 

In December 2023, $100M was repaid leaving $50M to repay.

A year later, at the end of December 2024, there was $36.4M left to repay.

Council is setting aside $1.4M each month to repay the rest in November 2025.

Current loans refer to loans payable this financial year, while non-current loans are those payable in future financial years. 

The table relates to external loans only. 

Council said there are several internal loans between Funds.

Wright said it was great to see the  information now included in the monthly finance report.
“It paints a better picture for local residents of where we are financially after seeing the newspaper headlines of $565m in debt in 2020,” he said.

“I have no doubt that it also provides a bit of comfort for ratepayers who can now see that we are on the right track as we leave administration behind.”