Politics & Council
6 May, 2024
Rate tinkering won’t solve funding woes, say Holt
LODDON Shire would be tens of millions of dollars behind within a decade without changes to Federal Government funding for councils, said Mayor Gavan Holt. Loddon councillors last week backed a recommendation from CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald to make...
LODDON Shire would be tens of millions of dollars behind within a decade without changes to Federal Government funding for councils, said Mayor Gavan Holt.
Loddon councillors last week backed a recommendation from CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald to make a submission to the Federal Parliament inquiry on local government’s sustainability.
Cr Holt told councillors that the current funding model for rural councils was no longer fit for purpose.
He said tinkering with the rate base would not solve problems faced by councils. Cr Holt said Loddon Shire could increase rates “but that would not been accepted by our community”.
“We can hope that what comes out of this inquiry is a model for funding local government that helps local government meet the financial challenges it has coming,” he said.
“We have 4600km of roads ... that would take you to Perth and Darwin.”
Cr Holt said returning local government funding through financial assistance groups to one per cent of the federal taxation would solve the problems.
The base local council funding model is 0.5 per cent.
However, he said there would need to be clarity on other federal funding streams including the roads to recovery program.
“If we can’t fix the revenue side, we will not fix the expenditure side,” Cr Holt said.