Council deficits: running out of people to blame
Central Coast Council's Long Term Financial Plan shows that the Administrator and CEO's current management settings will deliver operating deficits in eight of the next 10 years.
Over 10 years, the cumulative net deficit in the Consolidated Account will be an eyewatering $360M.
The "financial turnaround" the Administrator and chief executive boasted about is now exposed as spin rather than reality.
The report lacks transparency, but from the raw data it appears an application to IPART is being planned for a special variation rate hike of 25-30 per cent - on top of inflation.
It is financially irresponsible, and contrary to the accounting conventions of conservatism and prudence, to just make a groundless assumption in financial plans that this application will be approved.
Another special rate variation is totally unjustified.
Council cannot argue the previous special variation rate hike was insufficient when Council got the exact amount and the exact 10-year timescale it applied for.
That extra money was only ever intended for short term emergency purposes such as repaying loans from the financial crisis.
A financial crisis, let's not forget, the Administrator blamed on over-spending by previous councillors.
The recently departed chief financial officer even testified to the Public Inquiry she would have responded to deficits by cutting expenditure.
So how come, now facing a cumulative deficit of $360M, none of the four options considered in the report to the council meeting shaved more than 1.5 per cent off consolidated operating expenditure, spiralling towards one billion dollars by 2033?
Employee costs - that's the money our unelected bureaucracy spends on itself - will be $301 Million by 2033, 85 per cent more than in the Administrator's first budget in 2021/22.
None of the four options in this report shaves one dollar off that amount.
What does that say about this Council's commitment to productivity?
The unaccountable bureaucracy is once again protecting its own interests while inflicting rate hikes and service cuts on the community.
And with no elected Councillors to blame this time, can you believe they are now blaming their best friend IPART?
If this Council can't balance its books after receiving a 30 per cent increase in rates revenue in just three years, then it has a management problem not a revenue problem.
Council doesn't need more rate hikes.
It needs long overdue reforms to improve management performance, efficiency, productivity, cost control, prioritisation, and culture.
SOURCE:
Email, 28 Nov 2023
Kevin Brooks, Bensville