Blatant cost shifting adds $240,000

More than $240,000 could be saved if Baw Baw Shire stopped paying insurance and maintenance for government-owned facilities, according to a report presented to council.

However, reserve and hall assets could fall into disrepair or be lost to the community, councillors were told.

Stating they had been left with no choice, councillors unanimously voted to continue the insurance and maintenance payments.

Cr Danny Goss, who requested two reports into “blatant cost shifting,” declared the state government was moving “all their costs onto you, the ratepayers”.

“Council insures all public buildings, regardless of the ownership,” Cr Goss said. “Council is in a bind here.”

“If we don’t pay, we’ve got a problem. If we do pay, we are out of pocket for these assets owned by the greedy state government.”

“I want the residents to know that this council cannot provide all that you deserve and you need because the state government is up to the dirty tricks, like cost shifting, and won’t fund basic infrastructure that’s badly needed,” Cr Goss concluded to gallery applause.

Tabling the general business motion, councillors agreed to continue maintenance and renewal of Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change (DEECA) assets, ensure council grant eligibility for DEECA assets, and insure all public buildings in the shire regardless of ownership.

Councillors also voted to write to DEECA and local politicians seeking a funding increase.

DEECA was previously known as DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning).

A report found council spent $27,734 last year to insure 51 DEECA assets, including halls, pavilions, sheds and toilet blocks.

It noted this was standard practice across the local government sector in Victoria.

“Should council choose to cease this current practice, committees may underinsure buildings due to financial constraints”, the report said. “If a building was destroyed or severely damaged, committees do not have access to contractor panels and pricing options that are available to council. This may result in the asset not being reconstructed, disadvantaging the community groups and potentially losing a community asset.”

In this case, the report also stated “in the event of significant damage or total loss, it is highly unlikely the state government would reinstate or replace damaged buildings used for the benefit of the community”.

In addition to insurance, the report found council allocated $213,482 in its 2021/22 maintenance allocation program to 13 reserves and 22 halls on state government land.

If council ceased this expenditure, council would save $136,592 on reserve allocations and $76,890 on halls.

Some of the reserves on government land and managed by DEECA include recreation reserves at Darnum, Longwarry, Neerim South, Thorpdale, Ripplebrook and Tanjil Bren.

Cr Goss said the mix of land ownership and management made it a “very complicated” matter.

He said “I know it’s common practice, but it’s totally unfair for them to do it when they’ve got billions and billions of dollars” and “we’re stuck with a rate cap well under inflation”.

“But the cost to the community if we didn’t do this is way too high,” Cr Goss said. “They are forcing us to spend the money because they won’t.”

“We’ve got a greedy government that basically ignores us here in Baw Baw Shire. They don’t care about the community, let’s make that very, very clear,” Cr Goss said.

Cr Peter Kostos congratulated Cr Goss for his passion at bringing cost shifting into the public domain.

“To the best of my knowledge, DEECA or the state government don’t insure their own properties but they ask us to cough up and pay for insurance for their buildings that our communities use,” Cr Kostos said.

He said the name change from DEWLP to DEECA would cost millions.

“Once again, the stupidity of cost shifting to local government and the stupidity of their own decisions - the way they do things - totally confounds me,” Cr Kostos concluded.

Cr Darren Wallace questioned why facilities such as Thorpdale and Longwarry football grounds were still under the control of the state government.

“Just hand them over to the communities that use them,” Cr Wallace said. “We’ll look after them as we always have, we’ll rebuild them when they fall down, we’ll continue to insure them and run them as per usual.”

“The state government has no need to be in this community space, that’s our job.”

“Give those assets over to the community so we can look after them properly,” he concluded.

Cr Tricia Jones said the report gave options going forwards but “I’m not happy about having to fork out ratepayers’ money”.

“My emphasis then would be on respectfully urging DEECA and our MPs to support our growing community with more funding and assistance,” Cr Jones said.

Cr Joe Gauci said council was “stuck between a rock and a hard place”.

“We need to look after our community,” Cr Gauci said. “We just can’t turn around and say ‘you get nothing because it’s not our ground’.”

“It just doesn’t work. It’s not what we are put here to do.”

“Even though we don’t like the fact we’re doing it, we’re obligated to do it to look after our fellow ratepayers and people who live here in Baw Baw Shire,” he said.