Cost of rate capping | Committee for Sydney call for end to rate capping | Regional Youth Traineeship Program | Election candidate information sessions No Images? Click here Vol 3: Issue 26 - Wednesday 1 August 2018 Please read on for an overview of a few of the things currently happening in South Australia's local government sector. LGA President Sue Clearihan The cost of rate cappingTuesday’s Advertiser featured an article claiming that capping council rate increases to CPI for the past decade would have saved ratepayers $492 this year. However, using ten year figures does not tell the full story. Following the Local Government Financial Sustainability Inquiry – initiated by the LGA in 2005 – South Australian councils introduced the measures required to better manage asset renewal and ensure their long-term financial sustainability. In some communities higher rate increases in successive years were necessary to adequately fund infrastructure and services. Following this period of significant nation leading reform, rate increases have been trending downward over the past five years. In metro Adelaide rate increase were on average 2.9% last year, and are 2.3% this year (against a CPI figure of 2.7%). These modest rate rises have been achieved despite electricity and fuel costs escalating well above CPI, and despite costs that have been shifted to councils by the State Government through increased levies, funding cuts and new responsibilities. This is compared to a 15% increase in the Government’s own Waste Levy this year, and NRM Levy increases as high as 9%. How much would South Australian taxpayers have saved if State Government taxes were capped at CPI for the past ten years? Copper Coast Council CEO Peter Harder explains what ten years of rate capping would have meant to his council below: We have a $28.6m budget with about 11,700 rateable properties. If each ratepayer would save $492 under (the) government’s rate capping plans, we would lose $5.8m annually and our operating deficit would grow from $400K to $6.2m. The result would put our community in a worse position than we were in 2010/11 when we had, in reality, a $4.5m deficit/annual underfunding of our infrastructure. Minister Knoll was quoted as stating that no one has been able to show him why councils have required annual revenue increases of 6%. While we haven’t had increases that high, I would be more than happy to organise a meeting with a number of regional councils that have, through the creation of their asset management plans and a realisation that the quality of the community’s key infrastructure was going backwards, needed to raise their rates. The key issue being long term underfunding, or in other words, their rates had always been too low. If the State Government has someone who can operate our community, maintain all its infrastructure and grow our economy for $22.8m per annum rather than the $29m that has been costed in our Long Term Financial Plans and Asset Management Plans, please put them in contact with us. The LGA has asked all councils to let us know whether they support or oppose the State Government’s rate capping Bill by this Friday. A special meeting of the LGA Board will then be held next Friday 10 August to determine a final position on the proposed legislation, which will be communicated to all parties. Committee for Sydney call for end to rate cappingIndependent think tank the Committee for Sydney has called for a series of local government reforms in NSW, including the abolishment of rate capping. Rate capping has been in place in NSW since the late 1970s, and academic studies have found that four decades of this policy have failed to deliver efficiencies. A report released by the Committee for Sydney last week said: “Sydneysiders pay the lowest council rates in Australia. While rates vary from council to council, compared to any other city, what the average home owner or business pays for council services is dwarfed by what our compatriots elsewhere pay. This is not something to be proud of. Cities rely on local services to thrive. We need more and better parks, decent footpaths and cycleways, cleaner streets with better amenities. We need town centres which are more than just places to shop or find employment, but are places to meet, socialise and play. This takes resources. Our parsimony in paying for local services is starting to deliver a false economy. Nearly half a century of capping council rates is undermining the liveability of our city. It has seriously undermined the capacity of local councils to deliver the city shaping services we want or the place making our neighbourhoods need. The principle aim of the recent round of local government reform was to ensure all councils have the scale and resources to meet their existing and future community needs. Yet after several years of expensive disruption, councils are still not in control of their own financial future.” Regional Youth Traineeship ProgramThe Regional Youth Traineeship Program (RYTP) – administered by the LGA on behalf of the State Government – has been a huge success, providing South Australian councils with better succession planning while helping young people remain in their regional communities. The first round of this program is now winding up, with 74 trainees having had the opportunity to participate in fulltime employment and gain a certificate III level qualification. Round two of the program is in full swing, with 57 trainee positions spread across 37 councils. One RYTP graduate – Ashleigh Darrie from Alexandrina Council – has been chosen as a finalist for the SA Training and Skills Commission’s ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Trainee of the Year Award’. Ashleigh is now employed fulltime at Alexandrina as co-coordinator of their community grants program and central administrator for her team, and in the future hopes to be a mentor and an ambassador for young Aboriginal and regionally based people in traineeships. The RYTP is a great example of what we can achieve for our communities when we work in partnership with other spheres of government, and the LGA will be advocating in our 2018/19 State Budget Submission for the continuation of this program. “Make a difference – nominate for council” sessionsNominations for the 2018 council elections will open in a little more than a month, and the LGA – in conjunction with councils and ECSA – will host metropolitan and regional candidate information sessions in the coming weeks. These sessions will cover the role and functions of a council, relationship between councils and other spheres of government, the role of an elected member, allowances and expenses, legal responsibilities, how elections are conducted, eligibility and the process of nomination, and campaigning for election. The first of these sessions was held in Adelaide on Saturday, and we had more than 40 prospective candidates – from a diverse range of ages and backgrounds – attend. Thank you to Charles Sturt Mayor Angela Evans and Adelaide Hills Deputy Mayor Jan-Claire Wisdom and CEO Andrew Aitken for attending and sharing some great case studies. More information on these sessions – including dates and locations – can be found on our website. For further information on any of these articles or to submit feedback please email: |