LGA president Lorraine Rosenberg seeking urgent meeting with Local Government Minister Stephan Knoll on rates capping

A STATE Government pledge to cap council rates within its first 100 days would be impractical, the peak lobby group for the state’s 69 councils says.

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A STATE Government pledge to cap council rates within its first 100 days would be impractical, the peak lobby group for the state’s 69 councils says.

Local Government Association president Lorraine Rosenberg said councils would seek an urgent meeting with Local Government Minister Stephan Knoll.

Councils will argue against capping rate increases on the grounds it will hurt communities. Ms Rosenberg also said that, with councils already “well under way” in setting their draft budgets for the 2018-19 financial year, rushing rate capping would “be impractical and interfere with the community’s right to be engaged in determining the local services and projects they want in their area”.

“Additionally, this legislation would need to go through both houses of parliament, and with Labor, Greens and SA Best all making election commitments to oppose it being introduced ... it looks unlikely that the government will have the numbers to get rate capping through the Legislative Council,” she said.

Governor Hieu Van Le with new Local Government Ministe. Stephan Knoll. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“We maintain there are better opportunities for local government reform, and once we have confirmation of who the new Minister for Local Government is we’ll be seeking to discuss this as a priority.

“Although we disagree on rate capping, we welcome the Liberal Government’s commitment to stop cost shifting to councils.”

The LGA said that rate capping would lead to cuts in services – as had happened in NSW and Victoria.

The Advertiser revealed on Wednesday that new SA Best Upper House MP Frank Pangallo and colleague Connie Banaros had described as “remote” support for pushing through rate capping and deregulating shopping hours.

Local Government Association president Lorraine Rosenberg.

Mr Pangallo and Ms Banaros reiterated their opposition to the policy arguing it was a “blunt tool”, which would not result in better outcomes for the community.

Under the Government’s rate capping plan, setting of council rates would be overseen by an independent regulator who would apply the local government price index, which tracks slightly above CPI, as the basis for determining a rate cap.

Councils would be able to apply to seek increases above the cap if able to show it had the support of ratepayers. Mid-Murray Council Mayor and LGA immediate past president Dave Burgess said that would add unnecessary red-tape to the budget process.

“It’s more time and staff time doing things that could be better spent doing other stuff in the organisation,” he said.

He said a better option to reduce council costs would be sector-wide benchmarking for council services and standards.

Marion Mayor Kris Hanna, who ran unsuccessfully as the SA Best candidate for the seat of Gibson at the election, said he was “relaxed” with rate capping. “In the past three years, my fellow councillors and I have placed Marion very well in the event that rate capping is brought in and we’re looking at a rate rise of around the inflation rate,” Mr Hanna said.

His council’s long-term financial plan forecasts an annual rate rise of 2.2 per cent.

Holdfast Bay Council’s acting mayor Amanda Wilson opposed rate capping, with the councils’ financial plan forecasting an annual increase of 2.7 per cent: “We would prefer to be able to set our own rates . . . (but) I can’t see it impacting us as greatly as other councils because we do strive to keep our rates as low as possible.”

Responding to Ms Rosenberg in a tweet early Friday morning, Local Government Minister Stephan Knoll said he was “always happy” to meet with the LGA.

“But our position is clear, we pitched to the people of SA that we wanted to introduce a council rate cap, they agreed and voted for it and we look forward to working with the cross bench to honour our mandate,” Mr Knoll said.