Mayor welcomes $1m Financial Assistance Grants instalment
Explore Councils by state
Published on 08 September 2020
Mayor Neil Trotter has thanked the Federal Government for the quarterly instalment from the Financial Assistance Grants program.
Corangamite’s first quarterly payment of $994,669 was disbursed by the Local Government Grants Commission in August.
Cr Trotter said he had received a letter from Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government Mark Coulton advising of the first quarterly payment for 2020-21.
“Council is appreciative of the government’s contribution,” Cr Trotter said.
“This program is an important funding stream for Corangamite Shire. It will amount to $8.3 M in 2020-2021, which is about 16% of council’s income.
“Unlike many programs, these grants are not pinned to a specific area, and Council can use its discretion on where to spend the funds.
“The funding helps support several services that Council provides including libraries, pools and maintenance of local roads.”
Cr Trotter said Council had met with the Victorian Local Government Grants Commission which administers Financial Assistance Grants in this state.
“That gave us the opportunity to reinforce how significant this program is for our communities and to emphasise how important it is that this funding is maintained into the future.”
The Mayor said the grant was particularly important during the coronavirus pandemic and thanked the Commission for its work.
“In this current climate, Council has incurred extra expenses, implemented a $2.5 million coronavirus recovery plan including grants, jobs, fee waivers and infrastructure projects.
“On the other side of the ledger we have frozen the average rate in recognition of the challenges many of our community members are facing. The Financial Assistance Grants give us a degree of security in delivering services Council is obliged to provide.”
The quarterly payment is in addition to a $4,310,416 pre-payment received in May 2020. The next instalment is scheduled for 16 November 2020.