Baw Baw Shire is waiting for $8.6 million in emergency payments from the state government, some of the amount dating back more than two years.

The funding is provided to the state government by the federal government to be allocated to councils to pay for repairs caused by major storm, fire and flood events.
Shire chief executive officer Mark Dupe said since 2022 Baw Baw had outlayed about $14 million on disaster recovery including about $5 million for damage from storms in late August.
However, claims totalling about $8.6 million were still outstanding, he said.
Mr Dupe said councils relied on the federal Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) to support community recovery from natural disasters and extreme weather events.
He said after storms last August council responded to 850 incidents involving significant tree damage, most of which forced closure of many Baw Baw Shire roads.
Member for Monash Russell Broadbent said he'd been briefed on Baw Baw's situation by the shire's executive and it was a case of "the state being broke" and not fully passing on the money given to it by the federal government for emergency repairs.
"Ratepayers are carrying the Victorian government".
It is not passing on in full the money specifically allocated for councils, he stated.
Mr Broadbent said he was seeking a further update from the shire to enable him to contact the responsible state minister as well as the relevant federal minister.
In a media statement about DRFA funding issued on September 27 the state and federal governments said 28 councils in Victoria - including all six in Gippsland - were eligible to apply for assistance following the storms just over one month previous.
The joint (state and federal) assistance would "help support emergency and asset reconstruction efforts, in particular removing debris impacting essential public infrastructure like roads, footpaths, bridges and other critical assets".
Federal Minister for Emergency Management Jenny McAllister said the support of both governments would help councils clean up and restore assets as soon as possible while and state Minister for Emergency Services Jaclyn Symes stated they would "continue to support communities every step of the way."
Further claims about state neglect of regional roads have been made by a number of opposition members from Gippsland.
Nationals Member of Eastern Victoria Melina Bath said the state government was penny-pinching on roads to help counter Victoria's ballooning debt.
She said in 2018 the Labor government spruiked the establishment of Regional Roads Victoria "to make sure regional Victorians had the safe and reliable roads they deserve" but today still had to navigate unsafe intersections, pot hole ridden surfaces, crumbling edges and unkept roadsides".
The state's road maintenance budget is now 16 per cent lower than in 2020 and documents obtained under Freedom of Information reveal 8.5 per cent had been skimmed from federal funding allocated to fix "black spots," Ms Bath claimed.
Member for Narracan Wayne Farnham said his office received calls every day about road failures putting drivers at risk with essential road upgrades having to compete for funding against the government's mega projects in Melbourne.
Nationals Member for Gippsland South and shadow minister for roads and road safety Danny O'Brien said the "disastrous management" of the state's roads had resulted in 220,000 pot holes having to be filled last year and the situation was getting worse by the month.
He said it was not surprising the government's own website to log claims for damage caused by roads is reporting it is "currently experiencing higher than usual demands".