Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig defends rates discount cut

Gympie’s Mayor has defended the council’s decision to slash the early payment bonus in this year’s budget saying the old system only caused more financial pain for those struggling to make ends meet

Mayor Glen Hartwig had defended the decision to slash the early payment discount in Wednesday’s budget saying it puts an end to a system which penalised those that were struggling.

The early payment discount, which was available to ratepayers who paid their bills before the due date, has been set at 10 per cent for several years.

It was slashed to 5 per cent in this year’s budget.

It was part of a slew of changes including the abolishment of all council levies, for which the discount did not apply, and rolling them into general rates (for which the discount does apply).

Mr Hartwig said the decision would help those struggling to make ends meet.

Mayor Glen Hartwig (right) says the council’s early payment discount penalised those already struggling to make ends meet financially.

“(The discount) is a penalty to the people in the lower socio-economic bracket that weren’t able to afford to pay their rates by the due date,” Mr Hartwig said.

“We are lowering that penalty because we understood … it targeted those people that could least afford their rates and we are trying to ease the burden on those that are struggling.

“Bringing it back to 5 per cent still allows the incentive for those that are financially able to pay but doesn’t punish the people that may be struggling … for reasons and circumstances beyond their control.

The discount was cut from 10 per cent to five per cent in this year’s budget.

“It’s about being fair.”

He said the discount was only ever designed as an incentive to make people pay their rates on time.

“We are not a profitmaking commercial enterprise that has a retail margin we can discount,” Mr Hartwig said.

“It was an incentive … we added the 10 per cent on. It used to cost us $2 million a year to offer the discount.

“We knew the real cost was going to be (for example) $100, so we told the ratepayer we’re going to charge you $110 but we’re going to give you $10 back as a discount.

“It was an incentive to have people pay on time and penalty on those who could not afford to.”