As in WA, so in NSW - and so the sorry saga continues

Needs no commentary from me (at least for those in WA who have already been through this - and won, thanks to people power).

A few quotes suffice to show that state government try the same tricks wherever you are.

NSW councils have long argued that rate-pegging, cost-shifting and freezing the indexation of Financial Assistance Grants have constrained their revenues, while simultaneously slugging them with bigger bills for infrastructure and services.

He said that the state government had not provided good evidence mergers would benefit councils financially, apart from promising access to cheaper loans, which would still need to be repaid.

The Minister is being incredibly duplicitous: using a longstanding funding problem as cover for an ideologically-driven move to increase control over local communities and neighbourhoods.

And it isn't even in the interests of the party of Government:

State Premier Mike Baird’s amalgamation drive is causing all sorts of problems for Liberal MPs, who fear a backlash from the branches that elected them and from the general public.

http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2015/10/council-peak-body-gives-nsw-government-minister-a-serve