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 ratio table below is from the NSW Government's 'Your Council' / OLG time-series data for 2023–24, the latest complete comparable year; the dollar figures are from the council's 2024–25 Annual Report.
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.
- $1,488 / yearAbout 24% above the NSW council average of ~$1,203, partly reflecting Council's approved Special Rate Variation (see Rates & fees). A separate average domestic waste charge (~$726) applies. (OLG time-series data, 2024–25.)
- Debt
- Very low — debt service cover ratio 57.6× (2023–24)One of the strongest debt-service-cover ratios of any NSW council in the OLG dataset, indicating very low reliance on borrowings relative to revenue.
- 2024–25 operating income vs expenditure (actual)
- $226.1M income · $224.4M expensesNet budget result: a $1.6M surplus. (Annual Report 2024–25, Financial Summary.)
- 2024–25 capital expenditure (actual)
- $50.8 million22% of total spending; includes the Hornsby Park (former quarry) redevelopment. (Annual Report 2024–25.)
- 2026/27 planned capital works
- $61.1 millionIncludes $17.8M for Hornsby Park. (Draft 2026–2030 Delivery Program & 2026/27 Operational Plan, adopted 10 June 2026.)
| Indicator (2023–24) | Hornsby | Meets? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| −2.1% | > 0% | No | |
| 108.2% | > 60% | Yes | |
| 6.21× | > 1.5× | Yes | |
| 57.61× | > 2× | Yes | |
| 2.4% | < 5% | Yes | |
| 5.0 months | > 3 months | Yes | |
| 0.7% | < 2% | Yes | |
| 97.0% | > 100% | No | |
| 155.7% | > 100% | Yes |
Hornsby'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. Hornsby met 7 of the 9 benchmarks in 2023–24; the two it didn't — operating performance and asset maintenance — sit alongside very strong liquidity and an unusually low reliance on debt. (The OLG classifies Hornsby as a metropolitan-fringe council, so it is benchmarked at under 5% for rates outstanding; regional and rural councils are benchmarked at under 10%.) The 2024–25 OLG time-series shows a mixed picture on infrastructure: asset maintenance improved to 104.5% (now passing), while building & infrastructure renewals fell to 98.4% (now just below the 100% benchmark); infrastructure backlog stayed low at 0.8%. OLG has removed the full 9-ratio benchmark set from mandated reporting from 2024–25 onward while it reviews them. 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
- Office of Local Government — Time-Series Data 2023–24 (all NSW councils, benchmark ratios) · 2023–24
- Office of Local Government — Time-Series Data 2024–25 (average rate/waste charge; infrastructure ratios) · 2024–25
- Hornsby Shire Council — Annual Report 2024–2025 · 30 Jun 2025
- Yoursay Hornsby — Draft 2026–2030 Delivery Program and 2026/27 Operational Plan · Jun 2026
- Your Council (NSW Government) — Hornsby · 2023–24
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.