By Cr Jennifer Sanders
It has been very hectic for me in my role as Councillor lately due to the constant budget deliberations.
As a Councillor, one of the hardest things to do is bring down a fair budget.
No one wants to raise rates, and we deliberate long and hard about what items we can cut and where the budget can be reduced.
However, all Councillors agreed that we did not want to cut services.
The Council is a service provider and the service catalogue lists around 160 services provided including libraries, animal management, drainage, strategic and long term planning, road maintenance, replacing timber bridges, footpaths, pools, rubbish collection, management of the waste collection centres, compliance, town planning, community sporting facilities and management, leases etc etc and the list goes on and on.
Council staff were fortunate to negotiate a five per cent pay increase and there were huge rises in the cost of diesel, bitumen, pipes and other materials.
The leachate situation at Bromelton as well as the State government levy has meant an increase in costs to Council and ratepayers.
The area is growing and Council is responsible for providing services for the growing region. Our residents expect a higher level of services, and we have to budget to make sure these items are included in our towns and villages.
We are very fortunate that the State and Federal Governments have recognised our area as a growth centre and we continue to apply for grants to leverage our budget input.
Often grants are 50/50 funding so we must make sure that we have some money in reserve in the fortunate event that we are successful in gaining a grant.
I attended the Australian local government association (ALGA) and National General Assembly (NGA) in Canberra recently.
There were 1100 Mayors, Councillors and staff members from across Australia who came together to learn, encourage and to lobby the Federal Government for one per cent of the total taxation revenue to go to local Councils and their communities.
Currently the Federal Assistance grants have reduced to just 0.49 per cent.
You and your Council deserve more assistance to provide the services our growing community needs.
Not only that, the Disaster relief that all Councils rely on when flooding, fires or other disasters happen, is being reduced by the federal government to 50/50 with the States to provide the funding.
The conference felt this was unlikely to be met by the state and called on this idea to be withdrawn.
We continue to wait and see what will happen.
Don’t forget that the Census is currently still seeking field officers.
These roles are very busy but can be rewarding and the data collected is extremely important for communities such as ours.
I encourage everyone to provide factual information as it helps to budget for the services our area requires.
