Rating redress for 'fairness' for aged care residents

Noosa Mayor says looking to lift aged facility rates into line with residential

Aged care rates rise is under scrutiny in Noosa.

AGED care residents in Noosa including Cooroy Village will not be facing a 1000 per cent rates increase, according to Mayor Tony Wellington.

The mayor has responded to pensioner concerns about facing excessive increases after the council in 2018-19 "revised its general rate structure to begin a slowly staged process of introducing a new rate-in-the-dollar for retirement villages”.

"The current rate on Cooroy Village, if calculated per home in the facility, is $299,” Cr Wellington said.

"This is $850 less than that which a pensioner on full discount in a standalone house is paying.

"At Cooroy Village, this new rate amounts to a $2 per week increase for each residence.”

Cr Wellington said that would still only bring Cooroy Village up to 18 per cent of the general minimum rate.

"So there can be no doubt that Cooroy Village residents are experiencing a considerable discount when compared with pensioners or other residents in their own homes,” the mayor said.

"It's important to understand that the general rate is applied to the land, not to individual units in retirement villages.

"Thus Cooroy Village, for instance, will be paying a rate-in-the-dollar on the value of the total parcel of land that the village occupies. It is up to the landowner to determine how they then pass that rate fee on to their tenants.”

Cr Wellington said Cooroy Village residents are "somewhat similar to tenants in rented houses” in this regard.

"In the case of a tenanted house, the rates are incorporated into the calculation of the rent - and thus, if the rates go up, the rent is likely to also increase to cover those new charges,” he said.

"If we don't increase the rate-in-the-dollar on 'residential institutions' then all of our ratepayers, including pensioners in their own houses and apartments, are massively subsidising those who are living in retirement villages.

"Making this change begins to bring Noosa Council back in line with the rating structure that was in place prior to amalgamation.”

He said Noosa inherited the Sunshine Coast Council's rating system.

"In one particular area, what could be called retire- ment villages, we found that the inherited rating structure wasn't providing fairness at all,” he said.

"A number of retirement villages were found not to be paying anywhere near what we believed was a fair share of rates.

"In fact one retirement village was paying no rates at all. Meanwhile, older residents and pensioners living in their own homes and apartments were paying the full minimum general rate, less a pensioner discount where applicable.”

Cr Wellington said all these residents, whether they are in retirement villages or other accommodation, are benefiting from council services like roads and stormwater systems.

"It just didn't make sense that one group of residents were paying little or nothing while others were contributing their fair share.”