The increasing costs of fuel, construction supplies, plant and equipment, contractors rates and expected wage increase along with heavy rains damaging the roads, sporting grounds and other amenities, significant pressure is being placed on Blayney Shire Council's financial sustainability.
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Blayney council is not alone in dealing with these problems.
At the recent Local Government NSW Annual State conference a significant number indicated they will highly likely have to consider a special rate variation, some potentially in the vicinity of 50 to 60 per cent, to be financially sustainable.
With rates being any council's primary source of income, the current rate peg methodology has been the source of much despair and Blayney mayor Scott Ferguson, along with all Blayney's councillors, supports the draft submissions prepared by the two main local council groups that council is members of.
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Both Local Government NSW and Central NSW Joint Organisation have made submissions to the IPART review of rate peg methodology.
In a letter to the review backing the submissions Blayney shire's general manager Mark Dicker included one simple sentence that sums up the issue.
"The one size fits all model does not work," he wrote.
Being in the large rural council category Blayney's rates income is on average 20 per cent of total income, yet 32 per cent is the average total rates income as a percentage across the entire NSW local government sector.
"This confirms a significant disparity exists for regional councils to generate an appropriate level of income from rates," he wrote.
Deputy mayor David Somervaille said during the November ordinary council meeting that it was important that IPART have a close look at their methodology for their rate peg, or indeed if it even needs to exist at all.
"The state government needs to look at whether or not there needs to be a rate peg," he said.
"Other states in Australia don't have a rate peg, I think NSW and Victoria do and it goes back to the days when councils were regarded by the state government as not being competent to look after their own finances and not be responsible with the money.
"Things have changed a lot since then."
Cr Somervaille accepted that his own view of how rates should be assessed were unlikely to come to pass.
"My view would be that it's a matter for the ratepayers of each of the shires as to whether they would be happy to have their council assess rates based on their assessment of the competency of the councillors," he said.
"But I don't think that is going to happen so the best thing we can do is support the review of the methodology."
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.
