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.
- $1,180 / yearAbout 3% above the NSW council average of ~$1,140. Rose to $1,227 in 2024–25 (NSW ~$1,203), about 2% above the NSW average. A separate domestic waste charge (~$384 in 2023–24) applies. (OLG 'Your Council' data.)
- Operating surplus — performance ratio +2.6%Above the >0% benchmark.
- Liquidity & cash
- Unrestricted current ratio 2.84×, 10.4 months cash; debt service cover 3.30× (all pass)Liquidity, cash cover and debt service cover all above benchmark.
- 12.7% uncollected (misses the <10% benchmark)As a regional council, Broken Hill is benchmarked at under 10%; this year it sits above that line.
- Infrastructure
- Backlog 2.0% and maintenance 79.7% both miss; renewals 198.5% passesThe asset-maintenance ratio is the widest miss (79.7% against a >100% benchmark).
- Self-funding
- Own-source revenue 67.6% (passes)Above the >60% benchmark.
- Domestic waste charge (2023–24)
- $384 / yearA separate annual charge that funds the bin service; $402 in 2024–25.
| Indicator (2023–24) | Broken Hill | Meets? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.6% | > 0% | Yes | |
| 67.6% | > 60% | Yes | |
| 2.84× | > 1.5× | Yes | |
| 3.30× | > 2× | Yes | |
| 12.7% | < 10% | No | |
| 10.4 months | > 3 months | Yes | |
| 2.0% | < 2% | No | |
| 79.7% | > 100% | No | |
| 198.5% | > 100% | Yes |
Broken Hill City 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. Broken Hill met 6 of the 9 benchmarks in 2023–24. The misses were rates outstanding (12.7% against a <10% regional benchmark), infrastructure backlog (2.0%, at the <2% threshold) and asset maintenance (79.7% against >100%). (The OLG classifies Broken Hill as a regional council, so it is benchmarked at under 10% for rates outstanding, not the under-5% used for metropolitan councils.) The OLG's 2024–25 time-series shows the infrastructure ratios moving: backlog 2.0%, maintenance 74.0%, renewals 180.8%. 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.