Ratepayers on northern beaches set to be hit with rates hike
A BID to freeze rates on the northern beaches for the next two years has failed after Mayor Michael Regan used his casting vote to push through a proposed $40 a year rise.
Manly
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A BID to freeze rates for the next two years has failed after Mayor Michael Regan used his casting vote to push through a proposed $40 a year rise at a special council meeting last night.
The mayor supported the rate hike during the meeting called to debate a motion lodged to stop the Council’s proposed new budget going on public exhibition.
Last week Council voted to release its budget, which includes an increase in rates of $43 million over the next decade, for comment.
But a group of councillors, led by Liberals Rory Amon and Pat Daley, and backed by independent Vincent De Luca, wanted rates frozen until 2020, when all three former councils would fall under the same rate structure.
They said budget surpluses were forecast for the next 10 years of up to more than $16m a year and that an expected $10 million a year savings from the amalgamation should cover the Council for the next two years.
Dubbed “Rate Rise Regan” by his opponents, the mayor has argued that a rates’ freeze would put too much strain on the budget, services to ratepayers would suffer and vital infrastructure would not get built.
And in response to questions during last night’s meeting, Council’s chief financial officer David Walshe said ratepayers could actually end up, on average, paying less in total because of a proposed reduction in domestic waste collection charges.
Mr Walshe also told the meeting that a rates’ freeze would eat into the Council’s financial surplus while it still owed $37m in loans.
“(It) could not repay its debt without chewing into other funds,” he said.
“There would be an insufficient surplus to fund our loan repayments and therefore we would have to find that source of revenue from another component of council’s operations.”
Mr Walshe said Council would also see a reduction in spending of at least $9 million over the next three financial years including $7.5m in reduced employee costs.
Cr Regan asked Mr Walshe if the increase in rates would be offset by a decrease in the domestic waste charges.
“That is correct”, Mr Walshe said.
Cr Amon told the meeting that councillors had received a total of about 7,500 emails from property owners opposed to any rate rise.
“This Council needs to lead, we need to be in charge of the budget, not the budget being in control of us.”
Outside the meeting Cr Amon said that northern beaches ratepayers should put the blame for the rate rise squarely on the mayor.
“We are referring to him as ‘rate rise Regan” for using his casting vote to stop a rate freeze,” Cr Amon said.
Cr De Luca accused the mayor of using ratepayers as “cash cows” and that cost savings should be made rather that going ahead with a rate rise.
Deputy mayor Candy Bingham, who supported the rate rise, said an average family would end up paying about $3.30 extra per month if rates go up.
“You can’t even buy a cup of coffee on the northern beaches for that,” Cr Bingham said.
“In actually fact, when you get your rate notices it will actually be less than what you are paying now because of the savings in the waste (charge).”
After an hour of questions and debate, the vote on the motion was locked at six-all before Cr Regan used his casting vote to defeat the rate freeze push.
The proposed council budget will be put on exhibition for 28 days.