Emergency services funding reform – options paper

The Government referred the Emergency services funding reform – options paper to the Select Committee on Emergency Services Funding Reform of the NSW Legislative Assembly to inform its process.

This NSW Treasury paper presents five levy model options for replacing the current Emergency Services Levy (ESL) as part of the NSW Government's announced reform of the emergency services funding system. 

The key reform objectives for the Government are to:

1. Reduce insurance costs for households by replacing the ESL with a fairer levy spread across all property owners.
2. Protect pensioners and other vulnerable members of the community from further cost-of-living pressures.
3. Ensure a revenue-neutral model that sustainably funds our emergency services agencies.

The options presented in this paper have been prepared for discussion purposes, applying the reform’s levy design principles and high-level levy design framework developed by the Government. This framework consists of increasing fixed charges applied to a revenue base of land values and is guided by the principles of cost recovery, equity, efficiency, simplicity and sustainability.