Occasionally you have to feel a little sympathetic towards council, the “whipping boy” for the other two tiers of government.
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Decisions over budgets said to be beneficial to all made at a state and federal level are dropped like a hot potato in the lap of local councils already struggling under the burden of an increasing amount of infrastructure maintenance and renewal.
Take for example the three-year freezing of indexation to federal government financial assistance grants. Before that indexation was lifted in the May budget, federal help for council infrastructure needs was not increasing at the same rate as the cost of living and inflation, placing significant pressure on councils trying to keep up with demand.
Then, from the state government came the announcement local government would now be the go-to authority for collecting a Fire and Emergency Services Levy (FESL) instead of insurance companies.
Councils would not get any benefit themselves from this arrangement, given the levy is revenue neutral and directed solely towards providing NSW with services like the Rural Fire Service and SES. However, they would be tasked with coordinating the collection of said levy and we’re hearing, at least in the Bega Valley, it required the hiring of an additional staff member specifically for this role.
Admittedly, the state government says it has funded the additional resources councils would require to implement this change – but that still means us taxpayers are footing the bill regardless.
Then at short notice and after someone pointed out inconsistencies in the FESL policy that seemed glaringly obvious to many in the community who aren’t government advisors, the changes were dropped – or “put on pause” if you’re a politician.
Council may not have to deal with the levy collection for the time being. But what to do with the staff member appointed to coordinate it – that’s a question yet to be answered.
Thankfully, Mayor Kristy McBain has confirmed rates notices for the shire have not yet been printed, so there is no concern over reprints and associated costs.
However, she wondered what is to be done with the new employee, and whether the state government would continue to fund them, given it was a sudden turnaround in policy implementation.
With policy changes on the run, and seats to keep warm, being a servant of two masters is obviously no easy task.