State and Federal Government cost-shifting on local councils has become a significant burden on Marrickville Council, Mayor Mark Gardiner said yesterday.
A recent report to Marrickville Council found that continual cost-shifting was “unsustainable and inequitable”, estimating that gross cost-shifting onto Council now exceeds $7.3 million annually.
“Council should not be a dumping ground for services that the State and Federal tiers of government are actually responsible for,” Mayor Gardiner said.
“The State Government, in effect, stings us twice – first through limiting how we raise revenue, but also by foisting more and more services and responsibilities on to our sector.
“Then, when they do legislate for local government to take over their services, they often refuse to allow rises in compensatory payments.
“For example, the ‘library subsidy’ has not seen any kind of increase in many, many years and in fact has been going backwards. It was originally intended to fund half of council’s library operations across NSW.”
“If we were to indulge in the same irresponsible cost-shifting tactics of the State and Federal Governments, we would have to impose a permanent rate increase of 16 percent onto our residents,” Mayor Gardiner said.
“It’s no wonder Marrickville Council was recently forced to ask our residents to approve an additional 3 percent rate increase to help renew Marrickville’s essential community infrastructure.”
Last year, LGNSW found that government cost-shifting on NSW councils was more than $520 million a year.
Mayor Gardiner said the process significantly weakens Council’s position.
“The State Government can talk all it likes about how forced amalgamations will make ‘stronger communities’.
“But if they were truly interested in making stronger communities, they wouldn’t be constantly trying to weaken local governments’ financial position.”
