THE MIRROR Pondering rate rise and future Folio 1/ Issue 4/ Page One
Wednesday 28 October 2015
John Mitchell Palerang Council will reconsider its position on its amalgamation with Queanbeyan City Council, and a proposed special rate variation, at an extraordinary meeting to be held this Thursday 29 October. The move follows the State Government’s announcement that, not only will it be proceeding with the amalgamations proposed under its Fit for the Future program, but will also be providing financial incentives for broader amalgamations. A staff report attached to the agenda for the meeting notes, “The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) report ‘Assessment of NSW Council Fit for the Future Proposals’ has identified Palerang Council as ‘not fit’ based on the threshold ‘scale and capacity’ criterion. The report identified that a merger between Palerang and Queanbeyan councils would be beneficial to the community. The Office of Local Government (OLG) has advised that funding will be available for mergers of regional and rural NSW councils that are supported by merging partners, supported by the Government and submitted to the Department of Premier and Cabinet by 18 November 2015. The funding is $5m for a merger between two councils, or $10m if three or more councils are merging, an additional $5m merger implementation grant is available. Council needs to determine its preferred direction and the basis of response to the OLG survey. Council also needs to confirm its priority for the current proposed SRV program. “The NSW Government has indicated it will consider responses from councils, decide on next steps and inform councils and the community by end 2015.” The report continues “The IPART report said ‘Consistent with the NSW Government’s Terms of Reference.. we assessed the council proposals against the following
criteria 1) scale and capacity to engage effectively across community, industry and governments, and 2) sustainability 3) effectively managing infrastructure and delivering services for communities 4) efficiency. “The NSW Government has established the ‘scale and capacity’ criterion as the threshold criterion for councils, which requires councils to meet this criterion to be assessed as fit. Further, councils must also meet the remaining three financial criteria on an overall basis to be assessed as fit.’ “The IPART report’s key findings relevant to Palerang are •(Ref p85): We find Bombala Council (Bombala), Cooma-Monaro Shire Council (Cooma), Palerang Council (Palerang), Queanbeyan City Council (Queanbeyan) and Snowy River Shire Council (Snowy River) not fit, as they do not meet the scale and capacity criterion. Further, Cooma and Snowy River do not meet the financial criteria overall. •(Ref p86) In relation to Palerang and Queanbeyan, we consider a merger would provide greater benefits for Palerang and Queanbeyan, than each council standing alone. Our analysis suggests that, using the information in the business case jointly commissioned by Palerang and Queanbeyan, a merger would provide benefits of $51 million in NPV terms over 20 years. We also assess a merger would improve regional collaboration, operational efficiencies and longer term financial sustainability for Palerang.. ‘Both Palerang and Queanbeyan were assessed as meeting the financial criteria overall. However, we note Palerang meeting the sustainability criterion is based on the
approval of an SV of 24% above the rate peg over five years (40% including the rate peg). In addition, Queanbeyan meeting the financial criteria is based on the assumption of transitioning to its Regional Services Model, which it has assumed would include significant efficiency gains and a revised organisational structure’.” The staff report concludes, “Palerang Council’s options include Maintaining the current stand-alone position based on community feedback Merge with one or more of its neighbour Councils *In consultation with the community, develop a proposal where parts of Palerang are transferred to other Councils based on communities of interest. “The options currently being considered by neighbouring Councils are •Goulburn Mulwaree Council considered four options at its meeting of 20 October 2015 1)Amalgamate Goulburn with Upper Lachlan Shire Council 2)Amalgamate Goulburn with Upper Lachlan Shire and Yass Valley Councils 3)Amalgamate Goulburn with Palerang and Queanbeyan 4)All five Councils amalgamate The Council resolved that Goulburn Mulwaree Council host an urgent meeting of Mayors and General Managers of Queanbeyan City, Yass Valley, Palerang, Upper Lachlan Shire and Goulburn Mulwaree Councils to make recommendations to the respective Councils on the best options to meet the State Governments direction, and that Council support in principle a merger between the five Councils as its preferred option. •Yass Council will consider its options at its meeting of 28 October 2015 •Queanbeyan City Council is considering its options including a merger of Palerang and Queanbeyan and other potential alignments with neighbouring areas. .