Jargon, in plain English

Council pages are full of professional terms — finance ratios, the rate peg, crime rates. Here's what each one actually means, why it matters to you as a resident, and the formula behind the number where there is one.

Budget & finances

The health-check ratios the NSW Office of Local Government publishes for every council each year.

Operating performance ratio(does it live within its means)

Measures whether the council's normal operating income (rates, fees, operating grants) covers its normal operating costs. One-off capital grants for building things are left out so they don't flatter the result. Positive = a surplus; negative = a deficit.

What it means for you: A council that keeps running deficits will eventually face pressure to raise rates and fees or cut services. A single deficit (say, a year with a big project) is far less concerning than several in a row.

Formula: (Operating income excl. capital grants − operating expenses) ÷ operating income excl. capital grants

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 0%

Own-source operating revenue ratio(how self-funded it is)

The share of income the council generates on its own — rates, annual charges, and user fees and charges — compared with money handed down as grants and contributions from other governments.

What it means for you: A higher figure means the council is more financially independent and less exposed if grant funding is cut. A very low figure means it leans heavily on funding that may not always continue.

Formula: Operating revenue excluding all grants & contributions ÷ total operating revenue including all grants & contributions

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 60%

Unrestricted current ratio(short-term liquidity)

Compares the council's readily-available short-term assets against its short-term debts. 'Unrestricted' means money that isn't already locked to a specific purpose (like grants that must be spent on a particular project).

What it means for you: Below the benchmark can signal cash-flow stress; comfortably above it means a healthy buffer to cover the bills as they fall due.

Formula: Unrestricted current assets ÷ current liabilities

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 1.5 times

Debt service cover ratio(can it cover its loan repayments)

Shows how many times over the cash from operations could pay the council's yearly debt repayments — principal, interest and lease payments.

What it means for you: A low figure means a bigger slice of council money is going to debt rather than services. It can even turn negative if the council is running an operating loss.

Formula: Operating result before interest & depreciation ÷ (principal + interest + lease repayments)

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 2 times

Rates & annual charges outstanding ratio(unpaid rates)

The proportion of the year's rates and annual charges that residents and businesses still owe at the end of the financial year.

What it means for you: A high figure can point to financial stress in the community or weak debt collection, and it reduces the cash the council actually has to spend.

Formula: Rates & annual charges outstanding ÷ rates & annual charges collectible

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: less than 5% for metropolitan councils; less than 10% for regional & rural councils

Cash expense cover ratio(rainy-day buffer)

Expresses the council's cash and investments as the number of months of expenses they would cover if money stopped coming in.

What it means for you: A bigger buffer means the council is more resilient to a sudden shock — a natural disaster, a funding gap, a downturn.

Formula: (Cash & cash equivalents + term deposits) ÷ monthly operating & financing cash payments

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 3 months

Infrastructure backlog ratio(the catch-up bill)

The estimated cost of bringing assets — roads, buildings, drains, pools — back up to a satisfactory standard, measured against the total value of those assets.

What it means for you: A high backlog shows up in daily life as rougher roads and ageing facilities, and usually means catch-up spending is coming (which can put pressure on future rates).

Formula: Estimated cost to bring assets to a satisfactory standard ÷ total written-down value of those assets

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: less than 2%

Asset maintenance ratio(is it keeping up maintenance)

Compares what the council actually spent maintaining its assets against what it estimates it needed to spend.

What it means for you: Below 100% means maintenance is being deferred — cheaper today, but it builds a backlog and bigger repair bills tomorrow.

Formula: Actual asset maintenance spend ÷ required asset maintenance spend

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 100%

Building & infrastructure renewals ratio(renewing ageing assets)

Compares spending on renewing/replacing existing assets against how fast those assets are wearing out (their depreciation).

What it means for you: Below 100% means assets are ageing faster than they're being replaced. Sustained under-investment eventually surfaces as breakdowns, closures, or rate rises to catch up.

Formula: Asset renewals spend ÷ depreciation of those assets

Healthy target: OLG benchmark: greater than 100%

Operating result (surplus / deficit)

The bottom line of the council's everyday running: a surplus means income was higher than costs, a deficit means costs were higher than income.

What it means for you: It's the plain-dollar version of the operating performance ratio — repeated deficits are the warning sign to watch.

OLG benchmark(the pass mark)

For each ratio, the NSW Office of Local Government publishes a target. 'Meets' simply means the council's figure sits on the healthy side of that line.

What it means for you: It's a useful yardstick, but don't read too much into one missed benchmark — look at all the ratios together and over several years.

Average residential rate

The total general rates collected from homes, divided by the number of residential properties — i.e. the 'average' household bill.

What it means for you: A rough way to compare what households pay between councils. Your own bill will differ because it depends on your land value.

Formula: Total residential rates income ÷ number of residential properties

Rates & charges

What you pay the council, and the rules that decide how much it can rise.

Rate peg

Set by IPART under section 506 of the Local Government Act 1993, the rate peg is the maximum percentage by which a council may increase its general income (mostly rates) for the year. Crucially, it caps the council's whole pie — not your individual bill.

What it means for you: It limits how much extra the council collects overall. Your own bill can still go up by more or less than the peg, because the total is re-shared between properties based on land values.

Formula: Base Cost Change − productivity factor + population factor + Emergency Services Levy factor + other adjustments

Example: A 4% peg on a council collecting $100M in rates lets it collect up to $104M next year — spread across all properties.

Core peg

IPART's term for the rate peg before the population adjustment. It's the estimated change in councils' business-as-usual costs (the Base Cost Change — employee costs, asset costs and other operating costs) minus a productivity factor (currently set to 0% by default), plus an Emergency Services Levy factor and any other adjustments.

What it means for you: It's the part of the cap that tracks inflation in the things councils buy — wages, materials, fuel, asset and operating costs.

Population factor

A top-up to the rate peg for councils whose population is growing, recognising there are more properties and people to service. It grows the total pie — not each existing household's bill. IPART calculates it from the council's annual change in residential population, less revenue the council already gained from newly developed land (the 'supplementary valuations' adjustment).

What it means for you: If your council's peg looks high because the area is booming, it doesn't mean existing households are charged that much more each — it reflects new properties joining the rate base.

Formula: max(0, change in residential population − supplementary valuations %)

Special Rate Variation (SRV)

A request a council makes to IPART to increase rates above the standard peg, usually for a defined purpose and period. It has to be justified and approved.

What it means for you: If approved, rates in your area can rise above the normal peg for several years — typically to fund a specific program like infrastructure renewal.

Land valuation(Valuer General)

Your land value — the value of the land itself, not the house or other structures on it — determined by the NSW Valuer General under the Valuation of Land Act 1916. Councils use it to share the total rates bill between properties.

What it means for you: If your land value rises faster than your neighbours', your share of the rates rises too — and vice versa. This happens independently of the rate peg.

Pensioner rebate

A reduction on the rates and some charges for residents who hold an eligible pensioner concession card.

What it means for you: If you're an eligible pensioner, it can meaningfully lower your annual bill — you usually need to apply through the council.

Domestic waste charge

An annual charge that funds kerbside bin collection. It appears on your rates notice but is charged separately from general rates and is not limited by the rate peg.

What it means for you: Because it sits outside the peg, this charge can rise even in a year when general rates are pegged low.

Crime & safety

How recorded-crime numbers are counted and compared.

Rate per 100,000(population-adjusted rate)

The number of recorded incidents per 100,000 residents. Converting raw counts to a rate lets you compare a big city and a small town fairly.

What it means for you: It's the fair way to compare safety between councils. Note that in small areas a handful of incidents can swing the rate a lot from year to year.

Formula: (Incidents ÷ resident population) × 100,000

Compared to NSW (×)(vs NSW multiplier)

The local rate divided by the state-wide rate. 1.0 means the same as NSW; below 1.0 is lower than the state average; above 1.0 is higher.

What it means for you: A quick gut-check on whether a category is unusually high or low locally, rather than just reading a number with no context.

Formula: Local rate per 100,000 ÷ NSW rate per 100,000

Recorded incident(not a conviction)

These figures count incidents reported to or detected by police. They are not charges, court outcomes or convictions, and the count moves with how often people report crime too.

What it means for you: Higher recorded numbers can reflect more reporting (or more police activity), not only more crime. Incidents are also counted where they happen, not where the people involved live.

Major offence categories

BOCSAR groups crime into major categories (assault, break & enter, robbery, theft, malicious damage and so on) and computes comparable rates for them. Very high-volume justice offences (like breach of bail or breach of an AVO) aren't rate-compared the same way.

What it means for you: It's why the table focuses on a consistent set of offence types you can compare across councils, rather than every possible charge.

Police Area Command / Police District(PAC / PD)

The operational policing unit covering a region — a Police Area Command (PAC) in metropolitan areas, a Police District (PD) in regional NSW. Its boundary doesn't always line up exactly with a council's.

What it means for you: When you read about local policing, this is the command in charge — useful to know its area can be larger or smaller than the council's.

Council & democracy

How your council is structured and who you actually vote for.

Local Government Area (LGA)

The legally defined geographic area that a single council is responsible for. The shaded boundary on our maps is the LGA.

What it means for you: It decides which council collects your rates, runs your bins, and approves building work in your street.

Ward

Many councils split their area into wards, and voters in each ward elect their own councillors. An 'undivided' council has no wards — all councillors are elected across the whole area.

What it means for you: If your council has wards, the councillors you vote for represent your part of the area specifically.

How the mayor is chosen

A mayor is either 'popularly elected' (voters pick the mayor directly on the ballot) or chosen by the elected councillors among themselves. Some city councils use the title Lord Mayor.

What it means for you: It changes what's actually on your ballot paper — whether you vote for the mayor yourself, or only for councillors who then pick one.

Estimated Resident Population (ERP)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' official estimate of how many people live in an area at a given date — more current than the five-yearly Census.

What it means for you: It's the population figure used to work out per-person comparisons, like crime rates and spending per resident.

Waste & recycling

The bin and drop-off services councils run.

FOGO(Food Organics & Garden Organics)

A combined food-and-garden-organics service: your green-lidded bin takes food scraps along with garden clippings, usually collected weekly and turned into compost. NSW requires every council to offer FOGO by 2030.

What it means for you: It lets you put food waste in the green bin instead of the red, cutting what goes to landfill. When it starts, your collection days and bin sizes may change.

Bulky / hard waste collection

A service for large household items — furniture, mattresses, whitegoods — that won't fit in kerbside bins. Some councils offer free scheduled pickups; others charge or run drop-off days.

What it means for you: It's how you get rid of big items legally instead of dumping them — check whether your council's service is on-call, booked, or a set date.

Community Recycling Centre (CRC)

A free drop-off site for tricky household items that can't go in kerbside bins — paint, batteries, motor oils, gas bottles, smoke detectors and e-waste.

What it means for you: It's the right place to dispose of hazardous bits safely, instead of binning them where they can cause fires or pollution.

Who collects the data

The official bodies behind the figures on this site.

BOCSAR(Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research)

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research — the independent government agency that compiles and publishes recorded-crime statistics for every Local Government Area.

What it means for you: It's where the crime figures on this site come from, so you can check any number at the source.

IPART(Independent Pricing & Regulatory Tribunal)

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal — the NSW body that sets the annual rate peg and assesses Special Rate Variation applications.

What it means for you: It's the umpire that decides how much councils are allowed to raise rates each year.

Office of Local Government (OLG)

The NSW Government division that oversees councils and publishes the standardised financial data and benchmark ratios shown on the finance pages.

What it means for you: It's the source of the like-for-like financial comparisons between councils.

NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC)

The independent body that conducts local government elections in NSW and publishes the official results, including each elected councillor's registered party.

What it means for you: It's the authoritative source for who was elected and which party (if any) they ran for.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Australia's official statistics agency, which produces the Census and the Estimated Resident Population used for per-person comparisons.

What it means for you: It's the source of the population numbers that make per-resident figures meaningful.

These explanations are general information to help you read the figures — not financial, legal or other professional advice. Definitions of the official ratios follow the NSW Office of Local Government and IPART; always check the linked sources for the precise definitions.