2013: WOLLONDILLY SHIRE COUNCIL CAN’T MANAGE ITS BUDGET Council admitted in its report to adopt the Business Plan Documents at the Ordinary Meeting on 17 June that despite “considerable effort” in promoting the documents, only eight ratepayers made submissions out of a population of 50,000. Council has already decided that our future direction remains locked in “rural living” at the expense of development and employment opportunities in this fast moving decade. Council acknowledged in its report to adopt the Business Plan Documents at the Ordinary Meeting on 17 June that it has a serious infrastructure maintenance backlog demanding attention and the issue is funding. It doesn’t have the money to fix roads, bridges and curb and guttering, but it can afford top-heavy executive salaries. The options Council raised to address its funding backlog is: 1. borrow more money on top of recent borrowings in the millions; 2. reduce expenditure by cutting existing services; or 3. apply for a further special rate variation on top of three current variations. Realistically, Council can’t manage its budget and borrowing more money or applying for more rate variations to address infrastructure backlogs isn’t going to solve mounting pressures. Council needs to consider other options. It needs to bite the bullet and call for a boundary alignment or partial amalgamation with neighbouring councils to lessen the load of maintaining 800km of roads in Wollondilly which it admits is too much to manage. It should sell off assets such as the Old Picton Post Office Building and the swimming pool and halve administration costs including Council’s fleet of vehicles. And, it should release more land for housing and industry to boost revenue and create employment. Do you think Council is seriously interested in listening to alternatives? Do you think Council is serious about managing its debt without borrowing or fixing rate increases? Finally, how is it that other Councils manage their budgets but Wollondilly can’t?
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 22:54:50 +0000
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