THE City of Greater Bendigo is yet to consider an offer to push its budget back two months but is mindful that more delays could hurt tradies grappling with coronavirus fallout.
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The state government has offered to waive laws demanding councils had down a budget by June 30, should they ask for it.
The longer a council's budget is delayed, the longer private contractors may have to wait for work and money for building projects and other programs.
Bendigo's council has already delayed its 2020/21 budget by a month to give its officers and the community time to work out how to respond to the economic crisis.
That delay would not affect any contractors' work because the budget would still be finished in June, before the start of the new financial year.
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The state government made the offer late on Thursday afternoon as council officers were preparing to leave for the Easter break, so the matter has not been discussed internally.
However, the council remains in a "strong position" to meet a June 30 deadline, it confirmed on Thursday night.
"We want to get the budget locked down and get the program moving. We know that will help keep the economy running," director of corporate performance Andrew Cooney said two weeks ago.
"The longer you delay it, the longer it is before you can get on with delivering it. We have eyes on that and the parts of the community that will rely on our budget to get money flowing."
The final budget could be flexible enough to deal with unexpected problems thrown out both by the crisis and the economy's recovery, Mr Cooney said.
"We don't know exactly what the impacts will be on some programs and we might need to review that mid-year," he said.
The state government offer was made by local government minister Adem Somyurek as he consults the sector about the welfare of staff, council meetings and upcoming elections scheduled for October 2020.
"This small change responds to requests from councils and will ensure they have time to consider how they will change their budgets to support their residents and businesses," he said.
Mr Somyurek also announced councils could ask for annual report deadline extensions to 30 November.
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