Emergency Services Levy is the latest disaster

Published on 10 May 2023

State Emergency Services including the Rural Fire Service provide essential volunteer support that our lives depend on.

The recent decision by the new NSW Government on the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) will make it much harder, and in some regional, rural and remote local government areas, impossible for Councils to provide essential services in the communities these volunteers call home, according to Lachlan Shire Mayor Cr John Medcalf OAM.

“We work beside our volunteers through natural disaster after natural disaster, and we volunteer ourselves. These highly respected workers and the critical services provided by the NSW Fire and Rescue, Rural Fire Services and State Emergency Services will certainly be affected under this recent decision by the new NSW Government. It will make it challenging for Councils to provide the same level of service for essential services in the communities where these wonderful volunteers reside.

Quite frankly I feel the Emergency Services Levy is a disaster following on the heels of the COVID pandemic, and the natural disasters we have experienced in this region alone. Council has no control over the sky rocketing increases in the Levy, the State does,” Mayor Medcalf added.

The increased cost to the State emergency services levy across NSW is believed to be $77 million dollars. This increase comes as Councils across the State are locking in their financial budgets for the coming year and forecasting the next ten years financial position.

It is not just the Levy that will impact Council. Assets like the Red Fleet of local Rural Fire Services go on Councils books, although they are technically owned by the State Government. Councils do not control these services and cannot make operational decisions regarding the management of the assets.

Mayor Medcalf said, “Requiring that local government recover the costs of state government activities is the most transparent example of cost shifting we have recently experienced.”

$77 million dollars is believed to be the increase to the State emergency services levy across NSW. This increase comes as Councils across the State are locking in their financial budgets for the coming year and forecasting the next ten years financial position.

Ultimately, with limited capacity to increase revenue, this means that Councils must reduce services to account for these costs. This is simply unsustainable.

The Central West region made representation to the previous Government to bring back to the table the broad-based property tax that was put on hold in 2017. The region also supported the Country Mayors Association and Local Government NSW push before the Election calling for all political parties to commit to policy reform that will see the Emergency Services Levy removed from local government and funded by other means, like a property tax.

“I can assure you we will be discussing this at our next Central NSW Board meeting, and it might be time that every Council in the region considers requesting a Special Rate Variation to pay for the increasing costs of the State Government,” Mayor Medcalf said.