{"id":107084,"date":"2015-05-16T00:17:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T14:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=107084"},"modified":"2020-06-30T12:58:54","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T02:58:54","slug":"show-us-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/16\/show-us-the-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Show Us The Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Editorial\" width=\"210\" height=\"350\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-77900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d.jpg 210w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d-180x300.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><strong>May 15, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>by Dafyd Martindale<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the South Burnett Regional Council&#8217;s May meeting, Councillors voted unanimously to press the Federal Government for a fairer slice of the taxation pie.<\/p>\n<p>The South Burnett has joined a national campaign led by the Australian Local Government Association and the Local Government Association of Queensland which has has two simple demands: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It wants the Federal Government to abandon a plan to freeze indexation of annual grants for the next three years which would (in the South Burnett&#8217;s case) strip a further $2.8 million out of the region&#8217;s  income, and &#8230;\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It wants the Federal Government to return a fairer slice of the nation&#8217;s revenue to local councils than the slim 2 per cent they receive today.\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>We think they have a very good case.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the moment, the Federal Government swallows about 84 per cent of the total tax cake and State Governments consume another 14 per cent. <\/p>\n<p>What little is left goes to councils.<\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago the average amount of grants received by the four old Councils that were merged to form the South Burnett Regional Council contributed between 20-30 per cent of their total annual income (<em>see table below<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20150515-grants.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20150515-grants.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"20150515-grants\" width=\"620\" height=\"168\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107086\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20150515-grants.jpg 620w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20150515-grants-300x81.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, though, the South Burnett Regional Council receives just 13.1 per cent of its annual income from grants. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Or in other words, over the last decade the amount of Federal grants given to our region each year has almost halved.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The consequences of this are obvious to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Rates across the South Burnett have risen sharply since 2008, only reaching a plateau two years ago when the new amalgamated Shire finally achieved some measure of financial stability. <\/p>\n<p>This has not only hit ratepayers squarely in the pocket but renters, too. <\/p>\n<p>And it was the loss of yet more Federal grants in late 2012 that directly led to the introduction of the $200 per annum Road Levy in our region.<\/p>\n<p>This unexpected &#8211; and still unexplained &#8211; loss of Federal grant money meant the Council either had to close down community services (such as libraries and pools) or let our roads disintegrate or &#8211; as it chose to do &#8211; get an extra contribution from everyone to keep the ship of state afloat.<\/p>\n<p>And these, of course, are just our region&#8217;s petty troubles.<\/p>\n<p>Rates everywhere else in Queensland have also risen sharply since the 2008 amalgamations. <\/p>\n<p><strong>And tellingly, the same has happened in other States where no amalgamations have taken place.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some of this, of course, is due to natural value increases.<\/p>\n<p>Money invested at 7 per cent will double roughly every 10 years. <\/p>\n<p>So a $100 rates bill in 2004 could be expected to be $150-$160 in 2014 if annual rate rises had been held to CPI. And this could have occurred if the level of Federal support had stayed the same.<\/p>\n<p>But the root cause of the rises we&#8217;ve all paid for, in one way or another, is the steady withdrawal of Federal Government funding support from councils over the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Which amounts to nothing more &#8211; and nothing less &#8211; than taxation by stealth.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related article: <a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/council-joins-grant-freeze-fight\/\">Council Joins Grant Freeze Fight<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Data Sources (PDFs):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.nla.gov.au\/pan\/81272\/20080219-1453\/www.murgon.qld.gov.au\/annualreports\/20042005financialstatements.pdf\" TARGET=\"_blank\">Murgon Shire Council 2004-2005 Financial Statements<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.nla.gov.au\/pan\/80416\/20080114-1158\/www.wondai.qld.gov.au\/annualreport\/20042005financial.pdf\" TARGET=\"_blank\">Wondai Shire Council 2004-2005 Financial Statements<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.nla.gov.au\/pan\/82243\/20080312-0057\/www.kingaroy.qld.gov.au\/annualreports\/20042005financialreport.pdf\" TARGET=\"_blank\">Kingaroy Shire Council 2004-2005 Financial Statements<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.nla.gov.au\/pan\/81202\/20080201-1553\/nanango.qld.gov.au\/annualreports\/20042005financials.pdf\" TARGET=\"_blank\">Nanango Shire Council 2004-2005 Financial Statements<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/editorial\/\">Read more Editorial columns<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the South Burnett Regional Council&#8217;s May meeting, Councillors voted unanimously to press the Federal Government for a fairer slice of the taxation pie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[598],"tags":[1156],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - 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