Data collected to make recommendations

2023 Local Government Road Lengths (PDF, 83 KB)

As part of the distribution of the Identified Local Road Grants and assessing the relative need for General Purpose Grants, the Commission maintains a local roads Geographical Information System (GIS).

The Commission has been maintaining its GIS for over 20 years and this process is currently under review.

The latest collection of road lengths used by the Commission in the grant recommendations includes details of the road lengths for each council, broken up into the following categories:

• Sealed Roads in Built-up Areas
• Sealed Roads in Non Built-up Areas
• Formed Roads (unsealed) in Built-up Areas
• Formed roads (unsealed) in Non Built-up Areas
• Unformed Roads
• Total Roads
• Sealed Laneways
• Unsealed Laneways
• Total Roads (including Laneways).

The Commission collects information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on population every year to use in their grant recommendations.

The assessment of relative need for the General Purpose Grants uses a 3 year average of population in the calculations and the final Estimated General Purpose Grants are allocated on the basis of the most recent population estimates.

The Identified Local Road Grants are also allocated on the basis of the most recent population estimates.

Estimated Resident Population (including Unincorporated Areas) (PDF, 198 KB)

Valuations data from the Office of the Valuer-General is a central element of the Commission’s methodology and assessment of capacity to raise revenue.

Valuation data is extracted from the Valuer-General’s South Australian Integrated Land Information Management System (SAILIS) and downloaded by the Commission as close as practicable to 1 January each year.

The Commission uses capital value in its calculations and considers 5 land use types:

• residential
• commercial
• industrial
• rural
• other.

This information is also provided in the Commission’s Database Reports.

Valuations data provided by the Valuer-General has been adjusted by the Commission to take into account a range of factors that impact on councils’ capacity to raise revenue (usually in relation to exemptions and rebates under the Local Government Act 1999).

It should also be noted that valuations data used by the Commission in its grant calculations is averaged over three years, in order to reduce the impacts of significant fluctuations from one year to the next.

Valuations over time 2023 (PDF, 519 KB)

Another central element of the Commission’s methodology includes the requirement to take into account revenue and expenditure of local government in the assessment of relative need.

The Commission includes revenue and expenditure by collecting a detailed breakdown of council revenue and expenditure by function. Net expenditure across a standard range of services is then included in the calculations of the FA Grants.

Purpose Code Summary 2022-23 (PDF, 289 KB)

While the Commission aims to take 100% of operating expenditure in its assessment, revenue and expenditure relating to “business undertakings”, administration, plant hire and governance are not included.