Blayney Shire Council's operations have been saved from cuts after Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman cleared the way for a special one-off rate variation for planned infrastructure and community services.
Blayney mayor and vice president of Local Government NSW Scott Ferguson said that across the state the sector had been struggling to meet budgets with the 0.7 per cent increase that had been handed down by IPART.
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"It's good that the government has taken on board the issues that the sector has put forward around the increases in inflation, soaring fuel and other commodity prices, and a mandated wage rise for staff,' he said.
Council will be able to apply for an increase to 2.5 per cent and Cr Ferguson said that the decision will be made over the next six weeks as to whether or not BSC will put one in.
"The increase of 2.5 is what we budgeted for last year and it's in our long term financial plan and strategies," he said.
It's in April that council begins work on next financial year's budget and Cr Ferguson said that with a loss of $160,000 on the cards, searching for savings was inevitable.
"We were going to have to start looking at that, but that will depend on what decision is made this week in regards to looking at the increase or if it's business as usual," he said.
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With fuel costs already rocketing skyward Cr Ferguson said that across the local government sector no councils were after large increases in rate rises, however the methodology changes put in place to arrive at the 0.7 per cent for this year need to be examined.
"We just want average rate rises similar to the CPI because we need to plan up to four years ahead," he said.
"IPART had also been tasked with undertaking a broader review of its rate peg methodology, including the Local Government Cost Index, to prevent a recurrence of the 2022-23 anomaly."
Council applications for the special one-off variation will close on 29 April, with decisions expected from IPART by 21 June 2022.
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Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
