Around this time every year, local governments set the budget for the following 12 months. A time consuming process where planned expenditure is decided, and then rates are set to meet those expenditures.
It’s your money; do you feel you’re getting sufficient say? Because there is another way … Continue reading Participatory Budgeting
If you had $24,898,443 in cash, other than spend some, what would you do with it? Chances are you’d not keep it all in cash, but that is what the City of Bayswater has to do. Or does it? Continue reading Is Cash the Best Place?
It is sometimes said that local governments promote sub-divisions and high rise in order to fill their coffers. The logic is, the more dwellings there are, the more money coming in. This is incorrect. Continue reading Does Infill Financially Benefit Local Governments?
Labor went to the last State election saying they would cap rates at CPI plus 2 per cent. Now the Liberals are following suit and talk is a cap at CPI. I don’t blame them; I’d probably do the same if I were in their shoes. But it does need to be seen as the populist and short-sighted idea that it is. As I detail near the end of this article, the workable method to limit future rate rises is to target the expenditure side of Local Governments; not the income side.
Continue reading Rate Cap = Crazy Idea
I imagine most people wouldn’t be fully aware of what is involved in this important Local Government function. It mainly consists of discussions on the planned expenditure for the coming year and which community and club requests can be funded. From this information, the required income is then known and rates are set. It is a long time-consuming process held over several months, and it all culminated with last night’s (30/06/15) council meeting where the 2015-16 budget was adopted. Continue reading The Budget Process
