A ‘beautiful set of numbers’

Outlining the second-quarter financial report to the February 10 Future Melbourne Committee meeting, chief financial officer Phu Nguyen told councillors the organisation was tracking towards a $23.36 million surplus against a budgeted surplus of $12.99 million.

However, Mr Nguyen told councillors the end of year surplus was expected to be just $6.4 million.

Mr Nguyen said the council had also just received record “open space” contributions.

“For the first six months we’ve received $9.8 million against a budget of $900,000.

That is significantly higher than historical averages and the six month figure is higher than any annual amount we have received,” Mr Nguyen said.

He said the council currently had $14 million in its open space reserve account.

Mr Nguyen said Crown Casino had successfully managed to save $636,000 in rates over two years after taking the council to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

Council-owned business, Citywide had underperformed in the first six months of the year by a similar amount. Council finance chair Cr Stephen Mayne described the six-month result as a “beautiful set of numbers”.