The 2023-2024 State Budget has provided some wins for regional Victorians, with investment into early years' infrastructure, fixing damaged roads, apprenticeships and traineeships for councils and additional funding for the school crossing supervisor program for one year.
Greater Shepparton City Council welcomes the allocation of $1.2 billion into early years' infrastructure and is pleased to see acknowledgement that local governments do not have the funds to repair all of the flood damaged roads in regional areas.
"The $677 million investment into emergency response and recovery needs of flood affected communities will provide a much needed boost for communities who will be dealing with the fallout from last year's flood event for some time yet," said Mayor, Cr Shane Sali.
"There will still be a huge shortfall in road funding from what is required to fix flood damaged roads so it will be interesting to see how Regional Roads Victoria and local governments across the state deal with the $300 million gap."
Cr Sali said Council is pleased to see the State Government recognise the importance of local government partnering to deliver community services and were looking forward to seeing the funding allocation for Greater Shepparton.
"The funding of $4 million for the Shepparton Lighthouse Project is great recognition of what this important service does for our community," he said.
"Providing funding for councils to develop more apprenticeships and traineeships will help address the skills shortage that many local councils are experiencing.
"However, we are yet to see what the allocation for Greater Shepparton is across all of these announcements. We still have some major projects that require funding and we will continue to advocate to both Federal and State governments to fund our region."
Cr Sali also acknowledged the windfall gains tax commencing on 1 July 2023.
"It is this Council's position that any windfall gains tax collected from rezoning of land that occurs in regional areas should be reinvested into the communities it is collected from, in order to support the infrastructure needs of the growing community," he said.
Cr Sali said the recent flood event demonstrated why the region desperately needed a second river crossing.
"While the funding provided for the Greater Shepparton region in this year's State Budget is promising, we will continue to advocate for the Goulburn Valley Shepparton Bypass," he said.
"With the 2026 Commonwealth Games three years away it is important that the Greater Shepparton community experiences further investment and growth in our region."
