Budget & finances
Comparing raw dollar totals between councils isn't very useful — bigger councils naturally have bigger numbers. What does tell you about a council's financial health are normalised indicators: the standard ratios that every NSW council reports against the Office of Local Government's benchmarks, plus per-property figures you can compare to the NSW average. The ratios below are from the NSW Government's 'Your Council' / OLG time-series data for 2023–24.
New to these terms? Read them in plain English
- Operating performance ratio
- Whether everyday income covers everyday running costs.
- Own-source operating revenue ratio
- How much of the council's income it raises itself vs. grants from other governments.
- Unrestricted current ratio
- Whether the council has enough spare cash to pay its short-term bills.
- Debt service cover ratio
- How comfortably operating cash covers the council's loan repayments.
- Rates & annual charges outstanding ratio
- The share of rates bills that haven't been paid by year-end.
- Cash expense cover ratio
- How many months the council could keep paying bills if income stopped.
- Infrastructure backlog ratio
- The cost of fixing run-down assets, as a share of what those assets are worth.
- Asset maintenance ratio
- Whether the council actually spends what it should on maintaining its assets.
- Building & infrastructure renewals ratio
- Whether assets are being renewed as fast as they wear out.
- Operating result (surplus / deficit)
- Income minus expenses for the year's normal operations.
- OLG benchmark
- The healthy target set by the state for each financial ratio.
- Average residential rate
- The typical yearly general-rates bill for a home in the area.
- Office of Local Government (OLG)
- The NSW body overseeing councils; publishes the financial data.
- $1,477 / yearUp from $1,279 in 2023–24 — about 23% above the 2024–25 NSW council average of ~$1,203. The rise reflects the council's approved Special Rate Variation (see Rates & fees). A separate average domestic waste charge (~$536 in 2024–25) applies. (OLG 'Your Council' data.)
- Operating surplus — performance ratio +8.1%Above the >0% benchmark.
- Liquidity & cash
- Unrestricted current ratio 6.95× (passes), 20.4 months cash; debt service cover 7.09× (passes)Liquidity, cash cover and debt service cover all comfortably above benchmark.
- Infrastructure
- Backlog 17.6% (well above benchmark); renewals 122.9% (passes); maintenance 80.0% (below benchmark)The infrastructure-backlog ratio is the stand-out issue — at 17.6% it is far above the <2% benchmark (and rises to 19.4% in the 2024–25 update). Asset maintenance also misses; renewals pass.
- Self-funding
- Own-source revenue 63.3% (passes)Above the >60% benchmark.
- Domestic waste charge (2024–25)
- $536 / yearA separate annual charge that funds the bin service ($521 in 2023–24).
| Indicator (2023–24) | Armidale Regional | Meets? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1% | > 0% | Yes | |
| 63.3% | > 60% | Yes | |
| 6.95× | > 1.5× | Yes | |
| 7.09× | > 2× | Yes | |
| 5.0% | < 10% | Yes | |
| 20.4 months | > 3 months | Yes | |
| 17.6% | < 2% | No | |
| 80.0% | > 100% | No | |
| 122.9% | > 100% | Yes |
Armidale Regional Council's financial-health indicators, 2023–24, against the NSW Office of Local Government benchmarks. 'Meets?' simply states whether the figure is on the benchmark side of the line. Source: NSW Government 'Your Council' / OLG time-series data, 2023–24.
These ratios are the standard, size-independent way to read a council's finances, which is why we use them instead of raw dollar totals. Armidale Regional met 7 of the 9 benchmarks in 2023–24 — the misses were infrastructure backlog and asset maintenance. The stand-out is the infrastructure backlog: at 17.6% (against a <2% benchmark) it is very high, and the OLG's 2024–25 time-series shows it rising further to 19.4%. (Addressing this backlog is the stated reason for the council's Special Rate Variation — see Rates & fees.) The OLG classifies Armidale Regional as a regional town/city council, so it is benchmarked at under 10% for rates outstanding; metropolitan councils are benchmarked at under 5%. Note: in the 2024–25 time-series the asset-maintenance and building/infrastructure-renewals ratios are both reported as 0.0%, which reflects a reporting gap rather than a real result, so we don't present those two 2024–25 figures as meaningful ratios. We present the numbers and their benchmarks; whether that's good value is for you to judge from the sources below.
Sources — check it yourself
Figures are current as at the dates shown and may change — always confirm with the linked source. See the notice at the bottom of the page for full details and how to report a correction.