ALGA is aware that councils are now developing their budget processes for 2020-21 and one of the issues which has arisen is the need for certainty around their Financial Assistance Grant allocations for 2020-21, especially in light of the Government’s announcement that the 2020-21 Budget will be delayed until October. The Government’s Financial Assistance Grants funding allocation would normally be announced in the Budget in early May (previously planned for 12 May 2020) following which councils would be advised of individual indicative FAGs allocations.
In recent years the Budget has usually included confirmation that councils will receive a full year of FAGs funding in the coming financial year because the Government has agreed to “bring forward” two quarters of the following year’s FAGs. The current year (2019-20) is the eighth year in which two quarters of FAGs funding have been brought forward. There is no indication that the Government intends to do anything differently in the coming year although the details are unlikely to be made public before early May. Councils should make the same sorts of FAGs funding assumptions for next year that they have made in previous years.