Kiama's draft money plan puts a 20 per cent rate rise and paid parking for visitors on the table. Have your say by 15 October

This is the full treatment of the finance plan we noted on our earlier story, Kiama gets an extra year to balance the budget. That story covered the deal. This one covers what the council has since written down to meet it, read from the documents themselves: the minister's signed variation order, version 2 of the council's Strategic Finance and Governance Improvement Plan, and the two drafts now on exhibition.

The order behind it

The minister for local government, Ron Hoenig, signed the variation on 30 June 2026. It varies the Performance Improvement Order first made on 8 November 2022 and varied on 23 May 2024. Its core requirement is that by 30 June 2027 the council adopt a 2027-28 budget showing an operating position at or above break even, before capital grants and contributions, and without relying on asset sale proceeds. It names a $7 million gap between expenditure and revenue, and requires lower-impact savings to come first, before the third-level staffing restructure measures in the council's April 2026 business papers are considered. It also bans outsourcing domestic waste collection for the life of the order, beyond arrangements already in place.

The order sets day-counted deadlines from its commencement: a draft Revenue Improvement Strategy on public exhibition within 90 days, and the final strategy and a final Strategic Asset Review adopted within 120. The minister's reasons say what happens if the council falls short: should it be unable to meet the order's expectations, including by needing a further extension, the order says a Financial Controller will be one of the options to be considered by the Minister.

Where the money is supposed to come from

The draft strategy puts the 2026-27 adopted budget at a $3.8 million deficit, so the target is at least $3.8 million more a year by the end of 2027-28. It lists four opportunities, in this priority order, with the council's own risk rating.

Source: draft Revenue Improvement Strategy, pages 11 to 17. Property sale proceeds are one-off cash, not recurring revenue, and the order excludes them from the break-even test.

The rate rise: a draft option, not an application

The draft says internal modelling shows a 20 per cent special rate variation would achieve a balanced result, excluding capital grants, within five years, adding $3.95 million a year from 2027-28. The long-term financial plan already assumes a 3 per cent increase, so the draft treats 17 per cent of the 20 as additional. It would not settle the matter: the same page says further revenue would be needed by 2032-33. The report to the council's 15 September meeting put it in a ratepayer's terms: a residential bill of $2,000 rising by $400 to $2,400. That is the council's example; how a variation falls on each rating category is not set out in the draft.

The draft's own next steps for the variation are, in order: engage with the community on service expectations and affordability; seek a council resolution on a 20 per cent variation; develop an implementation plan; commence an application with IPART. The Escarpment checked the minutes of the 15 September meeting: the resolution, carried nine votes to none, endorsed both drafts for exhibition and asked for a further report after it. It did not resolve to apply for a variation. As at 5 October 2026, the council's meetings page lists no later meeting, and the next on its schedule is Tuesday 20 October.

IPART's own timetable for 2027-28 sets the pace. Its application page invites councils to notify their intention to apply by the end of November 2026, with applications due in early February 2027 and determinations announced in May or June 2027. The council's September report reaches the same conclusion: an application would need to go in by February 2027, so community consultation would need to start immediately. The same report is plain about the risk: There is a risk that approval is not provided.

Paid parking: a study first

The draft counts about 1,350 parking spaces in the Kiama and Gerringong town centres and says initial, conservative modelling of a Byron Bay-style scheme, based on about 380,000 visitors a year at $4 an hour, would make over $1 million profit a year. Its own table has $250,000 of preparatory spending in 2026-27, $2.173 million of capital in 2027-28 and the first revenue in 2028-29. Before any of that, the council would need to revise its 2021-2031 traffic and parking study, study Gerringong and other busy visitor spots, and run a feasibility study; the improvement plan lists a parking study, benchmarking, identifying locations and a business case. Then come community consultation and a council decision.

The hurdle the draft names is Transport for NSW, which must approve pay parking devices and cashless schemes. The draft says plainly that TfNSW does not approve paid parking for the purpose of revenue raising, and generally will not support schemes where demand is already met.

Land, and Blue Haven Terralong

The draft Strategic Asset Review, on exhibition alongside, covers more than 300 parcels. It puts about $65 million on operational land with potential redevelopment or divestment value, including catalyst sites such as the administration building at 11 Manning Street and the works depot, of which about $5 million is short-term, achievable in 12 to 18 months subject to council approval. It withholds individual values and holding costs as commercial in confidence, and leaves community land to later work, including an Open Space and Recreation Strategy due by 30 June 2027. The town-centre car parks it examines in Gerringong and Jamberoo are recommended to stay as public parking.

On Blue Haven Terralong, the improvement plan records two things sent to the Office of Local Government within time: a funded works program for the critical fire safety issues, due 29 August, and the outline and timeframe for an independent business case on the village's future, due 29 September. The business case itself must weigh retention, lease or partnership, and divestment, with financial impacts projected over ten years. As at 5 October 2026 the outline is not among the documents on the council's Performance Improvement Order page. On 15 September the council accepted tenders for wet fire installation and refurbishment at the village's Stage 5, and for project management of that work. The draft strategy explains why the village matters to the cash position: fire safety work has delayed refurbishing and selling vacant units, so council cash has repaid departing residents' loan balances without new entry contributions coming in.

The dates

To have a say: the Your Say page takes submissions and runs a poll on the options; submissions also go to council@kiama.nsw.gov.au or by post to the Chief Executive Officer, PO Box 75, Kiama NSW 2533. The Your Say page states that no decisions have been made, and in the council's 24 September release Mayor Cameron McDonald said no decisions have been made by anyone at Council yet.

What the plan says about itself

The improvement plan rates each action with a traffic light. On the version published in September, reviewed on 29 September, the draft strategy, the parking investigation, the rate variation steps and the asset review are green, on track. One item is amber, at risk: the monthly financial reports to the Office of Local Government, due within 15 days of each month. The actions to set cash-balance targets and to break the habit of deficit budgets, due before 30 September, are grey, not started or not due, and record only that they are assigned to the finance team.

Our read

This is opinion, built on the documents above. Read the council's own timetables side by side and the four options are not equal. Parking pays from 2028-29 at the earliest, and needs Transport for NSW to approve a scheme it says it will not approve for revenue. Property sales bring cash, which the order's break-even test does not count. Fees and charges come with no figure. The only option in the draft that lands in the 2027-28 budget at the size required is the rate variation, and the council's September report says as much. So the consultation running to 16 October is, in practice, the first public test of a 20 per cent rate rise, even though the draft lists it last.

That makes two things worth more attention than they are getting. First, as at 5 October 2026 the variation had not been put to a council vote, and the draft's own sequence puts community engagement before that vote; a ratepayer who wants a say on the rate rise should not wait for a later, separate round that the IPART timetable leaves little room for. Second, the alternative the council's report names if the variation is not pursued is another deficit budget, and the order's alternative to a council that cannot meet it is a financial controller. The council has been straightforward in publishing the numbers. The choice it is now asking residents about is narrower than a list of four options makes it look.

Sources

1. NSW Minister for Local Government, Variation of Performance Improvement Order made to Kiama Municipal Council, signed 30 June 2026, five pages, as published by the council; read in full 5 October 2026: the dates of the original and earlier orders, the reasons including the financial controller passage, the break-even requirement, the $7 million gap, the 90 and 120 day deadlines, the Blue Haven Terralong business case terms and the waste outsourcing ban.
2. Kiama Municipal Council, Strategic Finance and Governance Improvement Plan, version 2, September 2026, 17 pages; read in full 5 October 2026: every milestone date, the status lights, the Blue Haven items sent within time, the 29 September review date and the April 2027 budget exhibition.
3. Kiama Municipal Council, Performance Improvement Order page, read 5 October 2026: the documents published under the order, which do not include the Blue Haven business case outline.
4. Kiama Municipal Council, Revenue Improvement Strategy, draft, September 2026, 23 pages; read in full 5 October 2026: the $3.8 million deficit, the four options, the risk ratings, the parking, property, catalyst site and rate variation figures, the Transport for NSW passage and the Blue Haven cash explanation.
5. Kiama Municipal Council, Strategic Asset Review, draft, September 2026, 52 pages; read 5 October 2026 for the executive summary, value and cost methods, recommended actions, key recommendations and the car park appendices: the more than 300 parcels, the $65 million and $5 million estimates and the commercial-in-confidence values.
6. Kiama Municipal Council, Report 13.6, Varied Performance Improvement Order Actions, ordinary meeting 15 September 2026, read 5 October 2026: the $2,000 to $2,400 example, the February 2027 timing, the approval risk and the exhibition dates.
7. Kiama Municipal Council, Minutes of the ordinary meeting, 15 September 2026, read 5 October 2026: resolution 26/243OC and its vote, and the Blue Haven Terralong Stage 5 tender resolutions.
8. Kiama Municipal Council, Revenue Improvement Strategy, Your Say, read 5 October 2026: the options on exhibition, the statement that no decisions have been made, and the 16 October close.
9. Kiama Municipal Council, Many ways to have your say on financial issues, news release, 24 September 2026, read 5 October 2026: the 16 October close, the webinar and pop-up times, the ways to make a submission and the mayor's quoted words.
10. Kiama Municipal Council, Agendas and minutes and Meetings schedule, read 5 October 2026: 15 September as the latest meeting listed and the council meeting on Tuesday 20 October.
11. Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, 2027-28 Special Variation and Minimum Rate Increase Applications, read 5 October 2026: the late November 2026 notification, early February 2027 applications and May or June 2027 determinations.
12. The Escarpment, Kiama gets an extra year to balance the budget, and a tighter leash to go with it, 19 July 2026, updated 5 October 2026: our earlier reporting on the order.

Spotted an error, or read these documents differently? Tell us and we will check it against the documents and log the outcome here.