REACTION: Ex-mayor and residents are up in arms over the Gympie council rates hike

Readers have lashed the council’s new budget which featured the discount being slashed slashed in half and rates again rising, meaning residents can expect their final bill to be about 3.2 per cent higher this year, with former Mayor Mick Curran apparently weighing in too.

Mayor Glen Hartwig speaks at a council meeting as Cr Dolly Jensen (left) and CEO Shane Gray look on.

News ratepayers will be slugged with an average rate rise of 3.2 per cent under the Gympie Regional Council’s new budget has not gone over well with some local residents, including former Mayor Mick Curran.

Incumbent Mayor Glen Hartwig said the new rates notices were a continuation of the council’s promise to go “back to basics”, with the $157.6 million budget including a $40.07 million capital works program with an expectation to scrape into surplus by $60,000 at the end of the financial year.

Most residential ratepayers can expect to pay an overall increase of no more than 3.22 per cent due to an overhaul of how the council is delivering rates bills.

RISE IN RATES: The Gympie Times spoke to Mayor Glen Hartwig about the decision to increase the rates for residents...

Posted by The Gympie Times on Tuesday, June 29, 2021

The announcement was met with a frosty reception from readers online:

Bob Boydy Boyd: “We will continue to pay for the poor decisions of a previous council and the poorer decisions of a new council.”

Laurenjane Donkin: “Good work council I already pay 1700 twice a year!!!! So (you’re) more or less saying (your) workers are not working to the best of their ability … so we should raise their pay? (You) don’t make sense.”

Kay Scott: “So council can‘t pay their bills with the exorbitant rates they already charge so stick their hands deeper into ratepayers pockets yet again. Please tell me where the ratepayers find the extra cash?”

Sheree Williams: “Maybe it's time they start chasing up all those that are years behind in their rates!”

The council also announced the early bird discount for paying rates on time has been slashed from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, but the payment now applies to entire rates bill including special levies (which were previously exempt).

Division 4 councillor Bruce Devereaux.

The Economic, Environmental, Road Infrastructure and Moy Pocket levies will all now be rolled into the general rates bill.

Mr Hartwig defended the decision, saying it put an end to a system which penalised those that were struggling.

An account apparently belonging to former Mayor Mick Curran, who Mr Hartwig beat at the 2020 election, questioned the decision to abolish the levies.

Mick Curran: “Sounds dodgy. Any funds raised on an individual levy, like the Environment Levy for instance is required to be expended or allocated to environmental projects. By these levy’s (sic) being absorbed into general rates, no expenditure needs to be allocated in those areas. Residents with higher rateable land values will be paying extra with ‘any’ rate rise because the levy’s have been included in general rates. A move backwards, not forwards.”

Division 4 Councillor Bruce Devereaux refuted that claim, saying “Any levee money collected which isn’t spent is absorbed into general rates anyway”.

The slashing of the discount also drew ire on The Gympie Times’ comment section:

Mark Chapman: “How (could) it be a penalty to the poor, if you paid late, you paid your full rates. If were able to, and you paid early you got a discount or a bonus if you will. The only way it could be a penalty on the poor is if the discount amount was added on as an extra previously.”

Zane Taske: “These type of decisions made by a select few, but impact many need to be put forward in a referendum or plebiscite … then the many lives that the select few are making decisions about can have a say.”

An account apparently belonging to former Mayor Mick Curran appeared to take issue with the council’s approach to its new budget. Picture: Shane Zahner

Roj Blake: “With no incentive to pay them early, we may as well pay them late then.”

Cr Devereaux was vocal in his support of the new budget, pointing concerned residents to the council’s “Contact us” section for any issues with their rates bills as well as the council’s new “transparency hub” to help residents understand “where their money goes”.

Mr Curran appeared to take issue with Cr Devereaux’s thoughts on the council’s transparency goals.

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“Transparency Bruce? Did I miss the draft budget process whereby the community saw and could comment and meet with councillors prior to the budget being adopted?,” a comment understood to come from Mr Curran’s profile said.

Cr Devereaux replied with a link to the transparency hub.