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.
- $1,118 (2023–24) → $1,235 (2024–25)About 3% above the NSW council average (~$1,140 in 2023–24, ~$1,203 in 2024–25). A separate domestic waste charge applies. (OLG 'Your Council' data.)
- Operating surplus — performance ratio +0.5%Just above the >0% benchmark.
- Liquidity & cash
- Unrestricted current ratio 1.34× (just below benchmark); 10.6 months cash; debt service cover 4.51× (passes)The unrestricted current ratio (liquidity) is the single miss — 1.34× against a >1.5× benchmark.
- Infrastructure
- Backlog 1.1% (passes); renewals 153.5% (passes); maintenance 127.5% (passes)All three infrastructure ratios pass the benchmark in 2023–24.
- Self-funding
- Own-source revenue 64.5% (passes)Above the >60% benchmark.
- Domestic waste charge
- $280 (2023–24) → $291 (2024–25)A separate annual charge that funds the bin service; low compared with metropolitan councils.
| Indicator (2023–24) | Griffith | Meets? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5% | > 0% | Yes | |
| 64.5% | > 60% | Yes | |
| 1.34× | > 1.5× | No | |
| 4.51× | > 2× | Yes | |
| 9.7% | < 10% | Yes | |
| 10.6 months | > 3 months | Yes | |
| 1.1% | < 2% | Yes | |
| 127.5% | > 100% | Yes | |
| 153.5% | > 100% | Yes |
Griffith 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. Griffith met 8 of the 9 benchmarks in 2023–24 — the only miss was the unrestricted current ratio (liquidity), and only marginally (1.34× against a >1.5× benchmark). (The OLG classifies Griffith as a regional town/city council, so it is benchmarked at under 10% for rates outstanding, where metropolitan councils are benchmarked at under 5%; Griffith's 9.7% is just inside that line.) The OLG's 2024–25 time-series shows the infrastructure ratios moving: backlog 1.2%, maintenance 119.2%, renewals 85.4%. 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.