Lismore councillors call out ‘cost-shifting’ from NSW Government

A councillor says the community “shouldn’t have to crawl on the floor fighting for crumbs” when it comes to money flowing back into the region.

Lismore City councillor Eddie Lloyd and mayor Vanessa Ekins have expressed deep concerns about “cost shifting” from the state government.

There were scathing comments toward the NSW Government when two motions on “cost-shifting” went before Lismore City Council this week.

Mayor Vanessa Ekins raised the first of two motions criticising financial burdens placed upon the council.

Ms Ekins said an “unquantified financial impost” had come to the attention of councils across the Northern Rivers.

A recent financial audit had suggested equipment owned by the Rural Fire Service, including their fire trucks, was “controlled” by the council in the sense that they should be recognised in the council’s financial statements.

She said Department of Planning, Industry and Environment had confirmed its view was that “rural firefighting equipment is not controlled by the NSW Rural Fire Service”.

Ms Ekins said with about 16 rural fire stations across the Lismore local government area, she was concerned about the financial implications for an already cash-strapped council.

The meeting heard from council staff that the equipment in question in the Lismore area was valued about $3.3 million.

The council would bear the weight of an estimated $177,000 depreciation impact attached to that equipment each year, they said.

Lismore mayor Vanessa Ekins.

Ms Ekins called for the council to write to Premier Dominic Perrottet, the treasurer and emergency services minister to raise their concerns.

She also wants to see the council take those concerns to the Local Government NSW conference.

“It’s really important … to talk with the state government and give them an idea of what that impact is looking like on our budgets,” she said.

Councillor Adam Guise backed the motion.

“We’ve been banging on about cost-shifting for a very long time,” Mr Guise said.

“It really highlights the erosion of councils to be able to adequately fund the sufficient infrastructure to stay afloat.

“We’ve got approximately a $20 million deficit; that increasingly adds to that deficit.”

He said the council must push back against any additional burden.

“We have to say no to this,” he said.

“If we don’t this will increasingly erode our ability to stay financially sustainable.”

The mayor’s motion received unanimous support, as did a broader “cost-shifting” motion from councillor Eddie Lloyd.

Ms Lloyd called for a separate schedule in the council’s annual budgets and annual financial statement to detail “the amounts cost-shifted onto council each year”.

Lismore City Councillor Eddie Lloyd.

“Cost-shifting is the biggest threat to local councils across NSW and indeed Australia,” Ms Lloyd said.

“Sometimes we are legitimately and rightly criticised for our own financial mistakes.

“But the main reason we and other councils struggle to balance the books and to reach financial stability is because the state is taking millions and millions and millions of dollars from Lismore City Council every single year.”

Ms Lloyd said Lismore City Council was among those who participated in Local Government NSW audits several years ago.

She said millions of dollars were “pillaged” from the council each year.

In the most recent, for the 2015-16 financial year, they found the state government “cost shifted $9 million” to the council, Ms Lloyd said.

She said this included $700,000 being taken away from libraries and $300,000 from pensioner rebates.

“The biggest ticket number is the waste levy,” she said.

“In the last year we have given the state government $2.5 million of our community’s money in waste levies.

“The state government tell us we’ve got to make a circular economy out of waste but they only return 18 per cent of that waste levy to councils in NSW that we all have to compete for in grants.

“Our community shouldn't have to crawl on the floor fighting for crumbs with other councils in NSW.”

“It is the biggest threat to financial sustainability and it must stop.”