Wellington Council general manager Allan Dive said there was not adequate funding available to maintain the service level of council’s infrastructure assets in the future.

“There is a considerable backlog on the amount that council needs to maintain infrastructure assets,” Mr Dive said.

“We’re not getting enough systematic funding through grants, etcetera from other levels of Government to fund roads and other community assets in the long term.”

Mr Dive believes the

Federal cash handout for local governments does not ease

the money pressures facing council.

“The funding does not address the backlog,” Mr Dive said.

“I don’t think our council is getting a fair share of Government taxation, a lot

of other councils are in a pickle too.

“This was very evident with the meeting of the councils in the Parkes electorate last Thursday at Narrabri, where all the councils expressed their frustration with the lack of funding and the dilemma they are facing in maintaining their local urban and rural roads in particular.

“We are not going out of business and council’s solvency is fine.

“What Fiscal Star is indicating is that in the future there will be funding gap for what is needed to maintain infrastructure at an adequate level to service the community needs and expectations.

“We won’t spend money if we don’t have it to spend, we will live within our means; only 30 per cent of our income is from rates.”

The president of the Local Government Association of NSW, Genia McCaffery said while the Rudd Government’s $220 million stimulus package for councils was welcome, there were systemic funding issues which must be addressed to reverse this trend.

“If you’re actually going to fix the issue of long-term under-resourcing of councils, what’s really needed is real reform in how councils are funded,” she said.

“Combine that with rate pegging, the only state in Australia that has rate pegging, where every year councils are getting less revenue to meet rising costs, then it is absolutely not surprising that some councils are struggling to make ends meet and even the well-resourced councils are still not adequately resourced.”