Victorian council prepared to take a stand on ‘cost shifting’?

If local councils are bearing the brunt of cost shifting from both the federal and state governments, we know who’s footing the bill.

The Heidelberg & Valley Weekly has reported that in Banyule Shire the councillors are prepared to consider withdrawing money from services they believe the state government should be entirely funding.

The amount of ‘cost shifting’ has been estimated at between $500m and $1.1b every year by the ALGA (Australian Local Government Association) but last year an intergovernmental agreement was signed ‘to ease the cost shifting burden on councils’.

A bipartisan 2003 report

‘Rates & Taxes: A fair share for responsible local government’ states:

‘there is no doubt that local government has, over a number of years, been on the wrong end of cost shifting, largely by state governments’.

A further agreement was signed in September 2006 recognising the role of local government as part of Australia’s democratic system.

BUT

In May 2007, Cr Dick Gross, president of Victoria’s MAV (Municipal Association Vic) is welcoming Banyule’s action as fantastic!

What is Banyule objecting to specifically?

• Council’s budget discussions revealed that at least 4-5 per cent of rate rises were due to costs being picked up by Banyule;
• Library funding: the state government funds just 17 per cent of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service which caters for 306,000 residents across three shires.

Other services that used to be predominately covered by the state government, apart from library services, include:

• costs of employment initiatives
• school crossing guards
• services for the elderly.

Cr Dick Gross says:

“We’ve been whingeing about this for more than a decade – it’s reached unacceptable levels.”