General purpose grants
In 2011-12, the Victorian Grants Commission (VGC) has allocated a total of $370.446 million in general purpose grants to Victorian municipal councils.
The allocations are based on a methodology developed in close consultation with the local government sector. If you want to know more about the review, read the Review of the Allocation of General Purpose Grants to Victorian Councils: Final Report May 2001 (PDF 340kb)
The VGC adopted the recommendations made in the Final Report of the Review of Standardised Revenue Assessment (PDF 432kb) for the allocation of the 2005–06 general purpose grants.
This review made two major changes to the way the Commission assesses councils’ standardised revenue:
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standardised rate revenue capacity will, in future, be based on capital improved valuations, rather than net annual values as was the case until 2004/05
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an assessment of each council’s relative capacity to generate revenue from user fees and charges will be included in the standardised revenue calculation. The differing capacity of councils to generate revenue from this source will be reflected through a series of “revenue adjustors”
2004 Review of Standardised Revenue Assessment: Implementation of Recommendations - Questions and Answers Sheet (PDF 27kb) provides full details of the changes made.
Revenue Adjustors
To find out more about revenue adjustors, the following documents are available:
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Revenue Adjustor – Household Income for persons over 60 (PDF 35kb)
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Revenue Adjustor – Socio Economic (PDF 35kb)
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Revenue Adjustor – Tourism (PDF 45kb)
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Revenue Adjustor – Value of Developments (PDF 3 kb)
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Revenue Adjustor – Valuations (PDF 37kb)
Cost Adjustors
A key element of the general purpose grants methodology is a set of cost adjustors, which allow the Commission to take account of the characteristics of individual councils and the impact those characteristics have on the relative expenditure needs of councils.
Fourteen different cost adjustors have been used in the allocation of general purpose grants. The raw data underpinning each cost adjustor and the resulting cost adjustor values for each council are detailed in the Commission’s Annual Report. Information on each cost adjustor, and spreadsheets showing the calculation of each cost adjustor are provided below, as well as two general documents relating to cost adjustors.
Allocation of General Purpose Grants: