Ratepayers might end up having to almost entirely fund the $215 million City Hall restoration after the state government again refused to commit money in its upcoming budget.
The federal government gave $10 million to the restoration as a grant in 2009, however the Queensland government last night again refused to provide any money.
About $2 million has come from public donations and a fundraising concert on April 15 featuring Kamahl raised between $10,000 and $20,000.
Only last month, the former lord mayor Campbell Newman said preserving an 1850s streetscape under the City Hall would add to the restoration costs.
Current Lord Mayor Graham Quirk yesterday said the council would again ask the state and federal governments for help.
Cr Quirk said he welcomed the $10 million then-Arts Minister Peter Garrett gave in 2009, “but we believe there is some scope for additional help from the federal government and also particularly, the state government”.
“This is an icon in the State’s capital and really the state government I think have an obligation to put some funds in towards the restoration of City Hall,” he said.
Acting state treasurer Rachel Nolan last night made it clear the government would not help pay for the building’s restoration.
“City Hall is the Brisbane City Council’s responsibility,” she said.
“It’s a sad indictment on the state of BCC’s finances if they can’t afford to restore City Hall, especially in light of the fact that Campbell Newman has raised rates above inflation levels every year since he became Lord Mayor.”
Ms Nolan said both federal and state governments were already helping with flood payments.
“The state and federal government’s will help fund flood recovery repairs to the Riverwalk and the City Cat terminals, above and beyond our responsibilities under the natural disaster recovery guidelines,” she said.
“Cr Quirk needs to … show some fiscal discipline that will enable him to fund his own projects without asking for a handout every five minutes.”
The council spent $30 million in 2009-10 on the project and has budgeted a further $69.9 million in 2010-11.
However, Ms Nolan said the Queensland government was already covering the cost of restoring Parliament House and would not contribute to saving City Hall.
Council Opposition Leader Shayne Sutton said the Liberal National Party administration never had a clear plan of where the money for City Hall’s restoration would come from.
“We believe they really are in trouble with this project. They have never really indicated how they were going to fund the restoration of City Hall,” she said.
Cr Sutton said public donations for the restoration were drying up.
“The consultants said that people baulked at the cost of the restoration, but they were less concerned if [the council] talked about money coming from other sources.”
Cr Sutton would not say what would happen if the Labor Party won office at the 2012 council election.
Cr Quirk said when he was first elected, local councils received a fixed sum from the federal government.
“I can recall back in the 1970s there was direct funding to local governments of two per cent of federal government budgetary funds,” he said.
“And of course that has continued to decline over the years. It is a very, very small proportion now, it would be less than half a per cent back to local government.”
City Hall is being restored after an independent report in November 2008 revealed serious foundation problems which had built up after a lack of restoration work over many years.
Source: Brisbane Times, http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/political-bunfight-over-city-hall-costs-20110427-1dwps.html
