NSW councils would have to cover more of the cost of local government elections under an Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal plan.
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Greater Hume Council resolved last night to write a submission to IPART opposing the proposal, which if adopted by the state government would have a "significant impact" on election costs locally.
IPART has suggested in its review of local government election costs that councils pay for 97 per cent of what it costs to administer elections - compared to the 62 per cent proposed by the NSW Electoral Commission.
Greater Hume's bill would increase from $58,000 at the 2016 elections to an estimated $97,000 in 2020 - an increase of 67 per cent over four years.
There would be a similar impact on Albury and Federation, who share returning officers with Greater Hume.
General manager Steven Pinnuck said this came off the back of an increase to the emergency services levy, with charges of this type to council imposed by government "increasing exponentially".
"I know there will be widespread opposition from local government in relation to the increases," he said.
"They're (IPART) hanging their hat on the fact that if the NSW Electoral Commission charges what it actually should charge to run an election, they say it's probable other players will come into the market (to administer elections).
"Whether that will occur in rural areas like ours is entirely debatable."
The emergency services levy will likely be put forward by Greater Hume Council at the NSW Local Government Conference in October, with councillors flagging some issues of importance on Wednesday night.
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The levy hike was the focus of a mayoral minute in May that raised the state government planned to collect an additional $19 million through council payments going to emergency services agencies, to help provide better worker's compensation to firefighters diagnosed with work-related cancers.
"Greater Hume Council has received an invoice from Revenue NSW for $510,068.70 for its 2019/2020 emergency services levy contribution," the minute read.
"This is $97,689.70 more than last year's levy, a 23.69 per cent increase.
"Council supports career and volunteer firefighters in NSW - as it does all emergency services workers and volunteers ... however, the sector was at no point advised that it would be required to cover the cost via significant increases to the emergency services levy, or what this cost would be.
"The additional contribution council is being asked to pay is a large amount and the impact of this unplanned cost will certainly be felt by the community."
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