Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig: rates discount really a PR exercise

Gympie’s Mayor Glen Hartwig has doubled down on the controversial decision to slash the early rates payment discount, saying that under the old system the council was charging ratepayers millions of dollars more than was needed.

Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig has stood by the contrioversial decision to slash the early rates payment by 5 per cent, saying to deliver a discount the council had to charge ratepayers more than it needed in the first place.

Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig has doubled down on the decision to slash the rate discount by 5 per cent, saying the old system was a PR exercise where ratepayers were charged millions of dollars more than was needed.

The decision to cut the early payment discount in half, from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, was made as part of the council’s budget handed down on June 30.

The decision, along with the announcement homeowners could expect to pay 3.22 per cent more to the council this year, was met with heavy community backlash.

However Mr Hartwig has defended the move in his latest online Mayor’s Message saying delivering a true 10 per cent discount to ratepayers would leave the council in a financial hole.

To stop prevent this he said the council needed to charge 10 per cent more in the first place.

“If all the work we need deliver costs $100 million, and you want a discount of 10 per cent and we give it to you, we would only collect $90 million,” Mr Hartwig said.

The council’s new budget has been met with backlash from the community.

“That would mean that we would have $100 million in expenses and only collected $90 million to pay for it.

“You can see the problem.

“So what does council do to make you feel like you are getting a discount? We add $10 million to the expenses, send out rates notices for $110 million and give you back the $10 million we’ve already taken from you.

“And for those who can’t pay their rates on time, they are penalised by 10 per cent.

“Ten per cent on top of an amount they already can’t afford.

The council says this year‘s rate rise is still lower than what ratepayers actually received in previous years.

“The bottom line is we charged you what we were going to give you back.

“That was never a discount.”

The decision to slash the discount but keep it doing is in contrast to choices made by other councils in recent years.

In 2020 Bundaberg Regional Council removed its 10 per cent discount entirely, balancing it out with an average 8 per cent drop in its rates.

This year Sunshine Coast Council also cut the discount off.

Mr Hartwig said at the end of the day the discount

“To get a discount, council charges you more than needed so they could give you some back,” he said.

“ You feel good about receiving a discount; it might make you feel good about council too.

“You could say that it’s a good PR exercise.”

Originally published as Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig: rates discount really a PR exercise