Today’s Caulfield Leader features the public advertising of the Glen Eira budget and Strategic Resource Plan. Once again the public is assailed with the following claims in its budget papers – Glen Eira Council is characterised by low taxing (rates and charges)….low spending……
How true these claims are, readers can judge for themselves with the following facts on past and projected rate increases in Glen Eira from 2007 until 2017 –
2007/8 – 6.5%
2008/9 – 6.5%
2009/10 – 6.5%
2010/11 – 6.5%
2011/12 – 6.0%
2012/13 – 6.5%
2013/14 – 6.5%
2014/15 – 6.5%
2015/16 – 6.5%
2016/17 – 5.0%
By way of comparison here’s what some of our neighbouring councils forecast for their residents –
BAYSIDE – Rating levels – Modest rate increases are forecast over the four years. Council proposes a rate increase of 3.9% in 2014/15 and 4.3% for the following thee years to 2017/18.
STONNINGTON – General rates are projected to increase by 4.3 percent in 2014/15 and 4.3 percent over the remaining years to 2017/18
On top of this, staff numbers continue to climb dramatically – again in stark contrast to other councils which often have a much larger area to service and a far greater population. Here are the Equivalent Full Time figures and these do not include the number of ‘contractors’ –
Bayside – 396
Port Phillip – 795
Yarra – 706
Stonnington – 575
Manningham – 493
Moonee Valley 728
Whitehorse – 654
Glen Eira – 775
PS: We neglected to point out the following –
- Council no longer claims that it provides the largest pensioner rebate on earth. Instead, the language now states that the rebate of $270 is higher than in most Victorian municipalities. The government subsidy was $253 and for 2014/15 is said to rise to $258. That means that Council’s ‘largesse’ has been decreasing each single year and that this year will signal the magnificent sum of approximately $12 per pensioner!
PPS: After a decade of promises, delays, and inaction, the Tree Register issue remains in the land of the never-never. Action Items for the 2013/14 budget stated in its goals and measures the following:
Introduce Local Law which creates the framework for a Classified Tree Register- Local Law adopted by Council.
The 2014/15 Action Plan has ‘re-engineered’ this outcome by stating –
Introduce Local Law which creates the framework for a Classified Tree Register – Local Law exhibited by Council.
So here’s another example of a council resolution that hasn’t been fulfilled. Further ‘adopting’ and ‘exhibiting’ a Local Law are vastly different things. There is no guarantee that by June 30th 2015 we will be any closer to having a Tree Register in Glen Eira – nor for that matter even clapping eyes on what promises to be a highly controversial set of Local Law amendments.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 14, 2014 at 7:47 AM
Six certainly seems to be the magic number for Glen Eira, regardless of what other Council’s do or the CPI.
Today’s lifestyles mean people don’t question the annual increase and it’s cumulative or compounding impact, Since rates (excluding all other service fees Councils charge) are lowest form of direct personal taxation, ratepayers adopt a “hey, everything is going up, this is just another, pay up and focus on something else” attitude to rates.
This is extremely unfortunate because if you do a simplistic compounding interest calculation (which is just as applicable to Council rates as it is to bank accounts) you will find that a $1200 pa rate bill (applicable to a two lot subdivision) 5 years ago, is now $1600 pa. A whopping cumulative 33% increase that excludes property revaluations, the fire services levy. a price spike attributable to some financial crisis or material shortage and by far exceeds salaries or petrol rises.
Ratepayers should really be questioning this – but I doubt they will
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May 14, 2014 at 6:59 PM
It is a matter of public record that Glen Eira underinvests in infrastructure such as adequate open space and drainage for its residents. For years it flogged off Council assets as a means of propping up its dodgy budgets. It refused to collect a meaningful contribution towards infrastructure from developers. It repeatedly compromised the integrity of its Planning Scheme to help developers make more money at the expense of amenity and public safety. There is no hypothecation for the money collected via open space contributions—it is purely a political “promise” how it might be spent in the future. The alleged “activity centres” are little more than clusters of restaurants and multi-unit dwellings that can’t be bothered complying with basic residential amenity standards. Ultimately the compounding 6% rises are to fund the salaries and wages of the empire being built by our CEO, and that doesn’t leave much to service resident needs.
May 14, 2014 at 8:48 PM
The consistent cry of Newton has been about the infrastructure gap ever since he took over. This may well have been true in the 1990’s but as Reprobate has said, when you flog off all assets and then decide to build palaces that go way over budget, then something is terribly wrong with the way that this council is managed. Gesac, Caulfield Park pavilion, Carnegie library, Duncan Mackinnon pavilion, now Glen Huntly Road Reservoir, are all millions and millions over budget. What invariably starts off at two or even three million blows out to over five million. That only means that more and more money has to be borrowed and paid off and then rates have to keep going up.
The loan for Gesac is paid back at over 8% at two million a year. By my reckoning that would make it roughly eleven million gone on interest payments alone by the time council is out of hock. Lobo is reported as saying that council couldn’t get out of this loan without paying around two million in penalties. Two million sounds a lot better to me than eleven million. These are the sorts of decisions that should be investigated and questioned. When all available funds are used to pay back borrowings and more and more money goes for projects that suddenly cost almost double to that forecast then something is awfully wrong with the way this council is managed.
May 14, 2014 at 10:48 PM
As a family person it is impossible to see how many families with children are managing to pay the bills. The bracket creek, inflation and every cost except the good food from our farmers are gobbling up all wage earners’ salaries as well as this extravagent council.
Enormous amounts of funds are wasted with thousands of watts producing carbon dioxide by the ton in all the parks and many council facilities (yes even city hall) when there is no one present!
Some of thosew 700 plus workers could turn off lights and suggest other cost saving measures.