Mayor hits out

KNOX mayor Jim Penna has condemned the financial squeeze on local government while state and federal governments sit on spare cash.
He has slammed the spare money sitting idle which could be used for much needed infrastructure as “an absolute disgrace”.
As Knox City Council endorsed a total rate increase of 6.62 per cent in its 2007-08 draft budget last Tuesday night, Cr Penna conveyed the mounting financial hardship that he says has necessitated widespread rate hikes.
Cr Penna claims that councils – “who are copping it at the coal face” – have been abandoned.
The comments came after Municipal Association of Victoria president Dick Gross said it would take an annual rate increase of 12 per cent over the next five years for councils to address the state’s $280 million infrastructure funding shortfall.
Cr Gross said: “It’s an uphill battle each year to balance responsible financial management, community expectations and affordability for ratepayers with the budget pressures created by inadequate funding from other levels of government and the ongoing effects of cost shifting.”
Knox’s CEO Graeme Emonson said the $600,000 council spent on providing school crossing supervision last year is a glaring example of how local governments are increasingly being forced to foot the bill for services.
“When that service was first introduced the State Government put 70 per cent of the funding in and we put 30 per cent in,” he said.
“That has now been reversed.”
State government spokesman Bill Kyriakopoulos, however, moved to deflect the blame, saying away from the Victorian government: “There is agreement among all state governments that the Commonwealth is not meeting its obligation to provide adequate untied financial assistance to local government.”
While Cr Gross would not absolve the state government, he said the funding structure must be changed from the top.
“Local government collects only three per cent of the total taxes nationally and if the Commonwealth was ever going to come to the party and share more of its growing surplus with councils, an election year would be a good time to deliver,” he said.
In response to Knox’s plea for financial assistance, La Trobe MP Jason Wood said that infrastructure funding should be dealt with on a case-by-case application basis.
“Each level of government has its responsibilities,” Mr Wood said.
“The council can apply for funding on these projects, and I’m very keen to receive proposals, but I’m still waiting for Knox to come to me with applications.”
Despite the hierarchical bickering, all levels of government say they are committed to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Cost Shifting signed in April last year which aims to improve the relationships between the levels of governments..
Cr Penna said that while the principles of the groundbreaking agreement were admirable, he had seen little evidence of its implementation.