Rates Rise, Roads Wait and a $4.2M Question: What Bendigo Council's New Budget Means for You

Bendigo ratepayers will absorb a 3.5 per cent increase to their annual rates bill from this month after City of Greater Bendigo councillors passed the 2026–27 budget at their June 25 ordinary meeting, setting total expenditure at $312 million. For the owner of a median-value Bendigo property — sitting at roughly $530,000 according to the Valuer-General Victoria's latest figures — that translates to around $58 extra per year. Not ruinous on its own, but it lands at a moment when grocery bills are still elevated and first-home buyers across regional Victoria are pulling back from the market.

The timing matters. The state government's rate-capping framework pegged the allowable increase for Victorian councils at 2.75 per cent this financial year. Greater Bendigo applied for — and received — an exemption, citing a $4.2 million funding gap left by cost blowouts on the Bendigo Law Courts precinct upgrade and unbudgeted drainage work along Napier Street in Eaglehawk. The exemption process is legal and not unusual, but it means the council is asking residents to carry costs that originated partly in project management problems rather than new services.

Where the Money Goes — and Where It Doesn't

The budget allocates $18.7 million to road renewal across the municipality, up from $16.1 million last year. Councillors specifically earmarked funding for resurfacing work on McIvor Road between the Strathdale roundabout and the Kennington Reservoir precinct, a stretch that local traders and cycling groups have flagged repeatedly as deteriorating. Another $6.3 million goes toward the ongoing Bendigo Art Gallery redevelopment on View Street, keeping that project on track for a mid-2027 reopening after construction delays pushed the original schedule back by five months.

What the budget does not fund — at least not yet — is a long-promised upgrade to the Kangaroo Flat Community Hub on Helm Street. A business case was completed in March, councillors were briefed in May, and the project sits at $0 in capital allocations for 2026–27. Community groups using the hub, including the Kangaroo Flat Neighbourhood House, were told the project would be reconsidered in the 2027–28 budget cycle. That's cold comfort for a facility that serves one of the municipality's higher-density residential growth corridors.

Bendigo Health's capital expansion program at the Lucan Street campus continues separately under state government funding, but the council budget does set aside $1.1 million for streetscape improvements along Lucan Street itself — footpaths, lighting and bicycle infrastructure — to handle the foot traffic the expanded hospital will generate when its new clinical services building opens in late 2027.

The Pressure on Ordinary Households

Council's own community satisfaction survey, conducted in February with 600 Bendigo residents, found 61 per cent of respondents rated value for rates money as either fair or poor — the lowest result in six years. The survey also showed satisfaction with sealed local roads dropped nine percentage points between 2024 and 2026. Those numbers aren't comfortable reading for councillors heading into the next election cycle, with the November 2028 local government elections still more than two years out but ward boundaries under review by the Victorian Electoral Commission right now.

La Trobe University's Bendigo campus on Edwards Road remains the region's largest single employer outside government, and the university's decision to expand its nursing and allied health enrolments by 15 per cent in 2026 is adding several hundred students to the city's rental pool — squeezing vacancy rates that were already sitting at 1.2 per cent as of June, well below the 3 per cent threshold economists consider a healthy market.

Residents who want to interrogate the budget before it becomes fully operational have until July 18 to lodge written submissions through the council's Your Say Bendigo platform. Hard copies can also be lodged at the Customer Service Centre at 195 Lyttleton Terrace. The rates notices themselves will arrive in letterboxes from July 14. Anyone who believes their property valuation is incorrect has 60 days from the date of that notice to lodge a formal objection with the Valuer-General's office — a right many residents don't realise they hold.