Byron Shire Council looks set to add its voice to the growing chorus calling on the state government to stop shifting responsibilities and costs onto local government.
In a mayoral minute to be discussed and debated at this week’s Council meeting, Mayor Michael Lyon asserts that the unrelenting growth of cost-shifting to councils is ‘eroding any possibility of financially sustainable local government’.
This is also ‘risking the capacity of councils to deliver tailored, grass roots services to their communities and properly deliver and maintain local infrastructure’.
Cr Lyon’s claim is partly based on a new report on cost-shifting, produced by Local Government New South Wales (LGNSW) which shows that the increase in cost-shifting has been accelerated by various NSW government policies.
The report found that $1.36 billion has been passed on to councils, more than a third of which came in the space of just four years between the 2017/18 financial year and the 2021/22 financial year.
‘This represents lost services, lost opportunity and lost amenity for all our residents and businesses,’ Cr Lyon said.
‘With councils having to fund this ongoing subsidy for the state government each and every year, it means our communities get less or go without,’ he said.
‘They go without better roads, they go without better parks, they go without important community services that only councils provide, and they and their ratepayers are effectively paying hidden taxes to other levels of government’.
Letter proposal
Cr Lyon is proposing in the mayoral minute that Council writes to the premier, the NSW treasurer, and the NSW minister for local government demanding that they ‘urgently address these costs through a combination of regulatory reform, budgetary provision and appropriate funding’.
He is also moving that a copy of the report be placed on Council’s website so that it can be easily accessed by the community.
The mayoral minute will be debated and voted on at Thursday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, a newly formed ‘stakeholder reference group’ held its first meeting on Monday to advise the government on reforming the way emergency services are funded.
A NSW government media release said a ‘broad range of perspectives’ were discussed for a new model to replace the existing Emergency Services Levy (ESL), which is paid through insurance premiums.
The government statement reads, ‘The reference group is made up of leaders from the insurance and property industries, business and council representatives and emergency service experts’.
LGNSW says the NSW government ‘imposed the ESL on all councils without warning for the 2023/24 financial year’, and described it as ‘cost-shifting at its worse, as it is imposed on councils without any mechanism for councils to recover costs’.
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