State Emergency Service branches as well as school crossing supervisors and the Bendigo Library are among services funded jointly by the council and the state government, for which the council will seek additional funding as the rate cap puts pressure on finances going forward.

City of Greater Bendigo chief executive officer Craig Niemann said state government funding for some services had not kept pace with costs for some time.

“Library funding used to be on a dollar for dollar [basis], I think our contribution to the library would be more likely to be about 80 per cent from local government and 20 per cent from the state nowadays,” he said.

“That’s happened over a long period of time where councils have contributed more and the government contribution hasn’t grown as much as what we would have liked.”

Mr Niemann said while the council’s draft budget had not flagged any changes during the next financial year, pressure would increase on its ability to provide some services after that.

“We hope to be fairly well business as usual next year but as time goes on and rate capping has a greater impact, we’ll be certainly having those conversations,” he said.

“They’re examples where we want to have that conversation with the state about a fair go.”

The state government matches council funding for local SES branches dollar for dollar, but Bendigo spokeswoman Natalie Stanway said that funding was still inadequate to cover costs.

“What we do get from the state government and the local government together is still not quite enough to meet the basic costs of the unit,” she said.

“We find that those two funding allocations jointly don’t quite cover our fuel and electricity costs to run the unit so we’ve really got a shortfall and so the two fundraising tin shakes that we do are vital.”

Mr Niemann said while there were no plans to slash funding to the SES or other services, cuts could not be ruled out in future.

“The City of Greater Bendigo isn't currently considering withdrawing from those services at this point in time as a result of rate capping,” he said.

“That doesn't mean we won’t look at them in future, but certainly at this point in time we’re trying to have more of a conversation with the state about sharing the financial responsibility for those services.”

Ms Stanway said the SES had always had a close relationship with the council and had no reason to expect rate capping to impact funding.

“I imagine that most of the municipalities will have a similar perspective that they need to look at what commitments they have and prioritise them but at this stage we’ve had no indication from the City of Greater Bendigo that they’re considering cutting funding,” she said.

“We really value the relationship that we have with them and we expect that we’ll continue to be consultative with them and work together to make sure the residents of the City of Greater Bendigo get the best services that they’re entitled to have.”

The comments come as other Victorian councils are being forced to make difficult decisions about where they allocate resources in the wake of rate capping, amid criticism from the Municipal Association of Victoria.

“For decades an increasing range of services have been provided by councils under shared funding agreements with the state,” MAV president Bill McArthur said.

“Over time, the state’s contribution has reduced, stopped completely or not kept pace with costs – leaving ratepayers to foot the bill.

“SES units should not be relying on councils, fundraisers and community goodwill to do such important work.”