Townsville City Council budget likely to include rate rise

Townsville homeowners and investors can expect to pay more in rates in the next financial year. Here’s why.

Cr Jenny Hill, Mayor of Townsville. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Some Townsville residents will feel the sting of a rate rise in the looming financial year as the council looks to balance cost of living pressures.

But, it is not yet clear how many property owners will be impacted.

Townsville City Council is set to vote on its 2023/24 budget next week and while Mayor Jenny Hill remained tight-lipped on the details, she said the organisation was experiencing the same pressures as every other business.

While she did not explicitly say there would be a rate rise, she said it was “put into the budget mix”.

In the 2022/23 budget, there was a two per cent in the dollar increase in rates on the previous year, which was capped at 10 per cent.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill. Picture: Shae Beplate.

The ‘average’ property was set to pay 9 per cent extra after land valuations increased significantly.

Land valued at about $155,000 was to pay about $227 more each year.

Land in the region’s blue chip suburbs like North Ward experienced a 43 per cent increase in value, meaning the full 10 per cent was applied to those ratepayers.

The increases are still expected to be capped at 10 per cent for the 2023/24 budget, but it is not known exactly how much more people will pay.

It is likely that homeowners whose land valuations increased well above 10 per cent will experience another rate rise.

Cr Hill said the council had to find a way to balance the operational budget and fund capital projects, which meant distributing any extra costs through the rates system.

“Because really, that’s our only form of income,” she said.

Cr Hill said the council could not rely on grant funding because it couldn’t be guaranteed.

She said for this reason, it was not included in the budget to cover capital works or projects.

The Mayor said ongoing projects would also be a focus of the budget.

She said there were often misconceptions about how long it took for projects to be completed, but there would be movement on a number of major projects in this financial year.

Cr Hill said the water pipeline from the Ross River Dam to the Douglas Water Treatment Plan, which burst in 2020, would likely be complete in the 2023/24 financial year.

She added that there would be “significant movement” on projects in the next eight months with “projects actually starting to dig a hole”.

Cr Hill said the councillors had been through a significant number of meetings and workshops to discuss the budget, some would not be happy with the outcome.

“Some stuff did come out … we’re going to repurpose that money elsewhere,” she said.

“I gave everyone the opportunity to have their say and suggest their changes.”

Originally published as Townsville City Council budget likely to include rate rise