Liberals: new shire could pay own way

Alex de Vos
A Bellarine Peninsula council would have plenty of revenue to pay its way, according to Liberal party estimates.
The party’s local government spokesperson, John Vogels, said critics who claimed a new council would not be feasible had not included a swag of typical revenue in their calculations.
Mr Vogels said revenue other than rates, such as government grants, fees and charges, would make a peninsula shire viable “like all other councils”.
His “rule of thumb” to work out revenue was multiplying each resident by $1000.
Examples were City of Greater Geelong’s population of 211,000 and $177 million in revenue a year, while Bendigo had 100,000 residents and $100 million.
“But we will appoint an independent person to investigate it further and there will be no secrecy – it will be clearly spelt out.
Mr Vogels said a Bellarine council would have revenue of $60 million, given the latest census returned a population count of about 60,000 on the peninsula.
Mr Vogels predicted “no rate increases” under a new council.
Labor Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville dismissed the Liberal party’s revenue estimations.
Ms Neville warned that residents would also face a “great deal” of cost for a new council office and staff.