Local Government NSW regularly monitors the extent of cost shifting onto local government with its cost shifting survey.
Cost shifting occurs when state and federal governments force councils to assume responsibility for infrastructure, services and regulatory functions without providing sufficient supporting funding.
The 2021/22 survey found cost shifting in NSW totalled $1.36 billion – an increase of $540 million since the survey was last carried out in 2017/18.
The total costs that were shifted onto the City of Sydney in the 2021/22 financial year is estimated to exceed $48 million.
At its meeting on Monday 11 March 2024, Council joined other NSW councils in requesting the NSW Government to address the unrelenting growth of cost shifting to the local government sector.