Revealed: How much Gympie rates will rise in 2025
Gympie ratepayers will be paying more in 2025 with the council revealing a new rates hike as part of its $262m budget, which includes millions of dollars for some long-demanded projects.
Gympie
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gympie. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Gympie ratepayers will be paying more in 2025 with the council revealing a 5.5 per cent rates hike as part of its new budget.
Councillors voted unanimously to support the $262m budget, which includes a $106.6m capital works program but is expected to deliver an operating deficit of $7.55m.
The headline of the budget is the rates hike which Mayor Glen Hartwig said in his speech was expected to add $1.80 per week, or about $93 per year, to people’s rates bills.
The rates rise is in addition to hikes in fees and charges across the region including pool entry, dump fees, and dog registration.
Residents will now being paying increases of $28.20 for garbage collection (up 7.5 per cent), $56.16 for sewerage services (up 6.5 per cent), and $30.36 for water access (up 6.5 per cent).
Major projects promised in the new budget include $8.8m for the purchase of land to be home for a future waste management facility, and $5.3m to buy land for a long-called for indoor sports facility and new sports fields.
Another $7.5m is budgeted for renovation of the Gympie Civic Centre, which has controversially been shut for several years.
The budget also includes $565,000 for fixing the pools at Gympie, Goomeri, Kandanga, Rainbow Beach, and Tin Can Bay, $207,000 to repair the Rainbow Beach Lifeguard Tower, $2.39m to widen Tagigan Rd at Goomboorian, $1.81m to widen Neerdie Rd at Gunalda, and $1.6m to widen the stretch of McIntosh Rd at Jones Hill from Valley View Court to Lawson Rd.
In a statement released following the budget, Mr Hartwig said the council had been making a “deliberate effort” to focus on basic services and address a “backlog of ageing infrastructure”.
The budget included a $42m infrastructure investment announced by the state government as the budget meeting was underway.
“Like every household, council is feeling the pressure of the rising cost of living and the growing expenses to keep a region moving in the right direction,” Mr Hartwig said.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Hartwig said “no-one likes it” but the council faced the same problems as other businesses nationwide.
“Prices go up, because the supply of goods and services go up” Mr Hartwig said.
“We are a cost of services provider, there’s no profit margin in what we do.
“If it costs us $100m to run the business and provide water, sewer, and roads for everyone, that’s the money we have to bring in from the region.”
‘***ing idiot!’: Shopping centre road rage attack lands in court
A man who wants to work in aged care has told a court he has found God since terrorising an elderly couple in a road rage incident at the Gympie Central Shopping Centre.
Mary St eatery’s shock shutdown after less than two years
A Mary St eatery has made the shocking decision to shut after less than two years, with customers suggesting another notorious Gympie problem played a part in its closure.