GET YOUR
FREE TV GUIDE
Southern Peninsula Caring for local families for over 40 years www.rosebudfunerals.com.au
INSIDE!
123 Jetty Road, Rosebud
Ph: 5986 8491
An independent voice for the community
Your weekly community newspaper covering Safety Beach to Portsea
17
FREE
Wednesday 23 October 2024
For all advertising and editorial needs, call 03 5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Financial crisis looms for shire Cameron McCullough cameron@mpnews.com.au
SUSAN Bissinger and Teresa Baker inspect poisoned weeds after controversial glyphosatebased weed killer, Roundup, was used at a playground at Rye Bicentennial Park. See ‘Outrage over playground weed killer’ - Page 8. Picture: Yanni
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council is moving towards a “precarious financial position” over the next five years with a “perfect storm” of rate capping, reduced federal government grants, and state government cost shifting “jeopardizing both the provision of essential services and the financial sustainability of local government”. The claims by the shire have been made at two recent inquiries into local government funding and sustainability at the state and federal level. Of greatest concern to the shire is state government cost-shifting which it estimates to balloon to $234m over the next five years. The shire’s submission to the Victorian inquiry noted the “unprecedented number of state government responsibilities... ultimately being shifted onto ratepayers”, and the added burden of state or federal legislation or programs that mandate local government participation, without sufficient funding to cover the cost. State government responsibilities shifted to the shire include foreshore management (which is estimated to cost the shire $11.7m annually), libraries, kindergartens, road maintenance and verge clearing, among others. Legislative changes likely to impact the shire’s revenue include the newly passed Short Stay Levy Bill 2024, and new waste laws introducing a standardised four bin waste system across the state set to cost the shire tens of millions
of dollars to implement (New bin laws prompt concerns of waste charge spike, The News 1/10/24). On the other hand, federal legislative changes such as the opening of aged-care services to the private sector saw the shire exiting those services, at a cost saving of between $4.5 to $5m per annum. Also of concern for the shire is the state government’s rate-capping regime which sets a capped rate “significantly lower than inflation”. The shire notes that “expenses have surged significantly beyond the Consumer Price Index. This is primarily attributed to a limited supplier pool and the escalated costs of infrastructure delivery”. Shire CEO John Baker, appearing at the federal government’s “Inquiry into local government sustainability” on 26 September stated that rate capping started “at a point when we were one of the lowest rating councils in the country” and that “every time there’s a 1.75 per cent (rise), that’s 1.75 per cent on where we were”. The shire believes the current model for calculating rates, which places the shire in a pool of other metropolitan municipalities, does not consider the high percentage of Green Wedge land on the peninsula, and the cost burden of eight million visitors to the area. “When you’re accommodating eight million visitors a year in a population of 170,000 the impact on infrastructure, on our roads and on the cleaning of beaches is absolutely enormous,” said Baker. Continued Page 4