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Council Drafts 2012/13 BudgetKeeping rates and charges at an affordable level has been the focus of Bass Coast Shire Council budget workshops. Bass Coast Mayor, Cr Veronica Dowman, said Councillors and staff have had a series of By Bass Coast - 22nd May 2012 - Back to News meetings to put together a draft budget.
"As always, keeping rates and charges affordable for our ratepayers is a prime consideration," said Cr Dowman.
"The proposed budget has total revenue from rates and garbage charges increasing an average of 5.9 per cent. To explain this further, average rates and charges will increase from $1,317 last financial year, to $1,395 in 2012/13, an increase of $78, or 5.9 per cent per property."
Cr Dowman said that being the fastest growing regional municipality in Victoria presented considerable pressures and challenges.
"The level of revenue needed to meet the demands and challenges of this fast growing community means we have had to increase rates. However, comparing CPI rises with rate rises is not valid. CPI measures retail expenditure, not those associated with delivering capital works programs and community services. We need to generate enough funds to allow Council to maintain existing service levels, fund new initiatives, continue to allocate funds towards capital projects and renew our infrastructure."
The draft budget will be presented at the Council meeting on 20 June 2012. It includes a record $25.485 million capital works program as well as almost $1 million in new initiatives.
Farm rates
Council has been in discussions with local farmers about their rates and charges for over 12 months.
"This year’s revaluation shows that whilst the overall increase in property values since 2010 is 5.3 per cent, the total value of farm land has decreased by 0.29 per cent," said Cr Dowman.
"Council has changed its Land Management Rebate Scheme, so the new scheme and the reduction in farm valuations, means that in 2012/13, farmers as a group, will pay about the same in rates and charges as last year."
Staff levels
Cr Dowman said staffing levels always came under scrutiny as part of the budget process.
"Organisationally, our employees have worked hard to reduce expenditure and we are clearly seeing the benefits of this. Teams are delivering the same or increased service levels for less expenditure. This allows us to direct more funds to key areas such as capital works. There is a misconception that staff numbers can be directly linked to rate increases," continued Cr Dowman.
"Through the budget process, we work out what revenue is needed to deliver the services and infrastructure that we need, including the number of staff needed to deliver it."
Cr Dowman said recent reports of staff numbers had also misconstrued figures.
"Last budget, we had the equivalent of 310 full time positions. There have been claims that this is closer to 420 when you take in part time workers. That 310 figure represents the hours worked by all employees including full-time, part time and casual workers as equivalent full-time positions. Our staff numbers are published in our Annual Report, which is available on our website."
Cr Dowman also said comparison of staff numbers between different councils was not an accurate measure of efficiency.
"Many councils use contractors to deliver services and this will impact on their staff numbers. For instance, we directly employ 70 home carers to deliver our Home and Community Care Program. Other councils deliver the service through contractors, so obviously those staff numbers do not appear on their overall staff tally. It really isn’t comparing like-with-like, which means it is not an accurate assessment."
Rate comparison
Rates and charges in Bass Coast remain very competitive when compared to those of other municipalities.
"According to the latest available published information, this Council has amongst the lowest average rates and charges per property in the State," explained Cr Dowman.
"In the 2011/12 financial year, the Bass Coast Shire had the fifteenth lowest average rates and charges per rateable property of the 79 municipalities in Victoria. Even with the proposed increase, the average rates and charges in Bass Coast are expected to be less than the large majority of other municipalities in Victoria.
"We also have comparison data for all the Gippsland Councils on our website," continued Cr Dowman.
"Bass Coast has had the second lowest average rates and charges increases of the Gippsland Councils every year since 2007."
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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