Leeton Shire Council Mayor, Tony Reneker, will submit a report to the Council’s May meeting recommending it write to the NSW Government to oppose the withdrawal of the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) subsidy.
ESLs – which help pay for important non-Council services like the RFS and SES – are currently funded out of local rates income. The “last-minute” removal of the NSW Government’s subsidy will see the local application of Leeton Shire’s anticipated rates increase for 23/24 immediately eroded by approximately $129,000, the Mayor said.
He has slammed the imposition on Councils as “hugely unfair and entirely unreasonable to local Councils who are already struggling to make ends meet”.
Mayor Reneker (pictured) will submit a report to the 24 May Ordinary Council Meeting recommending Council write to the Treasurer, the Minister for Emergency Services, the Minister for Local Government and local State Member Helen Dalton expressing Council’s strong opposition to the extra cost.
“All councils strongly support a well-funded emergency services sector and fully appreciate the critical contribution of emergency services workers and volunteers. However, going forward, it is essential that these non-Council services be supported through a more appropriate funding model that is equitable, transparent, and sustainable. Burdening local council rates is simply not the way,” the Mayor said.
For Leeton Shire Council, the ESL increase and removal of the subsidy amounts to around an additional $129,000 impost for 2023/24, bringing the total Council contribution for ESL to $292,365 annually.
“Stated differently, the full ESL now amounts to close to 65% of the expected increase in rates income for 2023/24, which means Council will have access to less than half the allowed rates increase for core council services,” said Mayor Reneker.
The timing of this development is particularly challenging as it comes so late in the local government budgeting cycle, well after IPART’s rate determination for the coming financial year, he said.
