Port Augusta Council goes into damage control over rate increases totalling 40 per cent over two years

A council has gone into damage control over plans to hit thousands of residents with rate increases totalling 40 per cent over the next two years.

Port Augusta Council has delayed sending out rate notices to thousands of residents.

A regional council has stalled changes to its rating system which will result in thousands of properties walloped with the state’s biggest increases in decades.

Port Augusta Council is reeling from unprecedented community backlash from residents facing rate rises totalling 40 per cent over the next two years.

A new computer system has been installed to send out rates notices which also include a new $900 fixed charge for sewerage and waste disposal.

The notices cannot be sent until the council passes its budget for the next financial year, which includes final approval by councillors to change its rating system from site value to capital value.

Under the changes, 5297 out of 5838 residential properties would have capped 20 per cent increases for the next two financial years.

Elected members have gone into crisis management after receiving a record number of community submissions protesting about the proposed higher rates. At a special meeting on Wednesday night, deputy mayor Linley Shine obtained support to delay moves to approve the budget.

Port Augusta Council is changing its rating system from site value to capital value, leading to increases for thousands of ratepayers.

Cr Shine successfully called for a “think tank” to discuss ways to reduce the rate increases while tackling the council’s borrowings of $10 million, increasing staff costs, ongoing losses from assets such as the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden and a forecast operating deficit of $2.3m.

Cr Shine said the proposed new rating system should not be introduced until other options to increase revenue and reduce spending were fully examined.

“The community has done a lot to tell us how it is feeling,” she said, adding: “We are all hearing that strong message.”

Cr Shine said it was “crunch time” for the council.

“We need to ask for some outside support and we need to have new eyes on our situation.”

Cr Shine said this could involve the formation of a “think tank” involving external advisers.

“We can’t continue to let the community hurt. They are hurting, we are seeing that.

“We need to focus on what the community is saying. We have to go back to the drawing board with some of this stuff.”

Cr Shine was supported by Cr Maralyn Marsh, a former Port Augusta Residents and Ratepayers Association office holder who said elected members “must take heed” of almost 130 submissions about the rate increases.

Cr Marsh said she was “shocked” when a staff report revealed how many residents, particularly pensioners, would be hit.

“I want us to change the whole way we are approaching this.”

Cr Matt Leonard opposed the formation of a ”think tank”, saying the council had spent six years planning the introduction of the rating system change.

“Five times council has resolved to keep doing this,” he said.

The issue will be discussed at an informal gathering next Tuesday before council’s monthly meeting.