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.
- $1,539 / yearAbout 35% above the NSW council average of ~$1,140. A separate domestic waste charge (~$529) applies. (2024–25: rate $1,626, waste $540.) A large Special Rate Variation lifts rates further from 2026–27 — see Rates & fees.
- Operating surplus — performance ratio +1.7%Above the >0% benchmark.
- Liquidity & cash
- Strong — unrestricted current ratio 4.00×, ~12.6 months cash, debt service cover 6.49×Comfortably above all three OLG benchmarks.
- Infrastructure
- Backlog 9.1% (above benchmark); renewals 86.9% and asset maintenance 91.9% (both below benchmark)The 2024–25 OLG figures show backlog easing slightly to 7.9%, but maintenance (89.9%) and renewals (58.4%) both weaker.
- Self-funding
- Own-source revenue 82.9% (passes)Above the >60% benchmark — relatively little reliance on grants.
- Domestic waste charge (2023–24)
- $529 / yearA separate annual charge that funds the bin service.
| Indicator (2023–24) | Ku-ring-gai | Meets? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| +1.7% | > 0% | Yes | |
| 82.9% | > 60% | Yes | |
| 4.00× | > 1.5× | Yes | |
| 6.49× | > 2× | Yes | |
| 5.2% | < 5% | No | |
| 12.6 months | > 3 months | Yes | |
| 9.1% | < 2% | No | |
| 91.9% | > 100% | No | |
| 86.9% | > 100% | No |
Ku-ring-gai'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. Ku-ring-gai met 5 of the 9 benchmarks in 2023–24; the gaps are all on the infrastructure side — a repair backlog above the under-2% benchmark, and renewals and asset maintenance both below the 100% lines — while liquidity, self-funding and day-to-day operating performance are comfortably ahead of benchmark. (The OLG classifies Ku-ring-gai as a metropolitan council, so it is benchmarked at under 5% for rates outstanding; regional and rural councils are benchmarked at under 10%.) In June 2026 IPART approved a permanent Special Rate Variation intended in part to address infrastructure funding — see Rates & fees and Priorities & direction. 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.