{"id":47091,"date":"2024-05-18T09:32:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T23:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=47091"},"modified":"2024-05-18T09:32:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T23:32:25","slug":"developers-and-business-face-suburban-rail-loop-levy-to-fund-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=47091","title":{"rendered":"Developers and business face Suburban Rail Loop levy to fund project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Developers and businesses along the route of the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop will be asked for as much as $11 billion to help pay for it as the state government refused to guarantee the rail project won\u2019t face further blowouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suburban Rail Loop Minister Danny Pearson said despite last week\u2019s budget confirming a 22 per cent increase in the cost of infrastructure projects, the government remains on track to deliver the first stage of the loop for the $30 billion to $34.5 billion price tag estimated in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"583\" height=\"389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-110.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47093\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-110.jpeg 583w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-110-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Construction at the Box Hill site for the Suburban Rail Loop.CREDIT:&nbsp;DARRIAN TRAYNOR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll I can go on is the fact we have the budget estimates to be $30 billion to $34.5 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suburban Rail Loop Authority chief executive Frankie Carroll confirmed the government had been given options for new taxes on businesses to raise the $11 billion required in the business case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn relation to the value capture mechanisms that were recommended in the business investment case in 2021, there was three recommended to government. One was a land tax surcharge. The second was a developer surcharge and the third was a car parking surcharge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose recommendations have gone to government. Government need to make a recommendation on what they want to use going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Victorian budget 2024 explained in two minutes\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eY9odP-KBtE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Pearson also refused to promise that the budgeted figure for the Cheltenham to Box Hill section of the orbital rail loop would not blow out by its completion date in 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re asking me to guarantee that in 2035 it will be $34.5 billion dollars, within that range, fine. But I just recognise the fact that it\u2019s 2024 now and what can happen,\u201d Pearson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His comments come after Treasurer Tim Pallas on Thursday rejected suggestions that the cost of SRL stage one could blow out to more than $42 billion. He said he remained confident that the project could be delivered in the predicted range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week\u2019s state budget confirmed more&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5foql\">than 100 projects would face delays<\/a>due to a 22 per cent increase in construction costs since 2021, triggered by an increase in the cost of materials, labour and transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, Pearson said the government would not consider conducting a new cost-benefit analysis of the project despite the changes to infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government also confirmed it would push ahead with plans to finance one-third of the project \u2013 up to $11 billion \u2013 with levies and taxes on land in the area that will increase in value, with the cost picked up by businesses and developers, but not local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked whether taxes or levies may apply to universities such as Monash and Deakin that could benefit from the rail loop, Pearson said \u201cthat work remains ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry late on Friday slammed the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief executive Paul Guerra told&nbsp;<em>The Age<\/em>&nbsp;the industry group would oppose any new tax or levy on businesses \u2013 for the rail loop or any other project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBusiness growth must be at the forefront and the recent budget confirms that position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Victorian Auditor-General has previously challenged the government\u2019s ability to raise $11.5 billion through value capture, saying it \u201cmay not be achieved\u201d and that the Department of Treasury and Finance had advised about \u201coptions for mitigating the forecast shortfall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pearson said the government was \u201cworking on the basis\u201d that the state government would contribute one-third of the cost, with one-third raised through value capture and the remaining third picked up by the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Allan government, which has only committed a third of the funding, remains confident the federal government will pay the same amount, despite only pledging $2.2 billion for the eastern section of the Victorian government\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop before the last election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Age<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Developers and businesses along the route of the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop will be asked for as much as $11 billion to help pay for it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":46253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999,163,8160],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-47091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-transport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47094,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47091\/revisions\/47094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}