“Difficult decisions” ahead, as Latrobe City’s 10-year plan highlights risk to services and infrastructure

If you peer into Latrobe City's financial crystal ball, you will see a big black hole.

The city’s councillors are facing the same challenge as many others in the state, trying to make ends meet while the state palms off projects and services to local government.

What happened: At a council meeting on October 27, Latrobe City councillors endorsed the staff’s 10-year financial plan, which identified the resources required to deliver council services, infrastructure projects and other priorities over the coming decade.

Councillor Darren Howe told the meeting the plan was of “major concern”, as it highlighted a risk to the council's ability to deliver services.

🗣️ “The plan makes it clear that the council cannot sustainably continue to provide existing services at current levels and maintain infrastructure into the future,” Howe said. “This means difficult decisions will need to be made in the coming years to ensure financial sustainability.”

Councils in Victoria use seven categories to assess financial risk. 

Howe pointed to two of them as examples of where Latrobe City would struggle to keep its head above water - the ability to produce a surplus in the ordinary course of business, and the fact that for four of the 10 years council’s spending on capital works would not keep pace with its consumption of assets.

This meant there was a "high risk" to service delivery if the council didn’t make prudent financial decisions, Howe said.

Latrobe City Mayor Dale Harriman told the Monitor there was a risk council wouldn’t be able to continue to deliver services at the same level, and pointed to the ever-increasing workload dumped on councils by successive state governments.

🗣️ “Over the last few years, there's [been] a number of programmes that were normally funded by the state government. Things like libraries, lollipop ladies, a whole range of projects and, all of a sudden, we're finding councils are being burdened with the majority of the cost.”

• According to the Municipal Association of Victoria, in 1975 Victorian libraries were funded 50:50 by the state and local government. In 2022/23 local governments covered 80 percent of the funding with the state pitching in 20 percent.

• Harriman said in the last financial year, state funding for libraries in the Latrobe Valley fell to 15 percent.

🗣️ “I think the state government has to go back to 100 percent funding of programmes that are their responsibility,” Harriman said. “We're happy to manage and run them [on their behalf].”