Ratepayer fury over Logan Mayor’s ‘pay more or get less’ proposal

A southside mayor has triggered calls to abolish elected councillors after giving ratepayers a stark choice: pay more or lose services, despite his council forecasting a $211 million surplus.

Logan City Council has forecasted a $211 Million surplus by June but Mayor Jon Raven says the financial stresses on council are too much and either rates go up or services will be cut.

Ratepayers of a southside city are expressing outrage after their mayor posted a video giving them an ultimatum: either face increases in rates or accept cuts to services.

Logan City Council Mayor Jon Raven said it was becoming “unaffordable” to maintain parks, roads and rubbish services as local councils were facing huge financial strains with rising costs, despite Logan council forecasting a whopping $211 million surplus by June.

In his video, the Mayor cited North Sydney Council’s recent 87 per cent rates rise before putting his ultimatum to Logan ratepayers: “Are you willing to pay more for better roads, parks, and facilities? Or should we cut services to make rate increases smaller?”

His video sparked a wave of comments, with ratepayers calling for drastic changes to the city’s political structure including abolishing Logan’s 13 elected members to save up to $2,164,339 annually.

Ratepayer Benj Sethi questioned how much more the city needed after forecasting in its recent budget a massive $211 million surplus at the end of June 30, 2025.

However, Mr Raven told his Facebook followers Logan’s current surplus of $26 million had been hit with $6 million of cost increases and $16 million in depreciation.

Logan Mayor Jon Raven has asked ratepayers whether they prefer rates going up or services being cut after North Sydney Council jacked up rates by more than 87 per cent.

“When you think that we have a budget of $1.1 billion (but) only have $6m spare (this) is running this very tight – that is a 0.005 per cent surplus,” Mr Raven said.

Logan’s 2024/25 budget showed employee costs were $218.6 million while materials and services were $355.5 million.

Rates, levies and charges, collected mainly from ratepayers, were $639.9 million and made up the council’s largest revenue source, while developer contributions were $75.8 million and subsidies provided a modest $15.89 million.

Logan Ratepayers Association president Rod Shaw responded to the Mayor’s ratepayer request for guidance on rates, calling for savings by abolishing all elected positions in the council, including the Mayor’s office.

Logan Ratepayers’ Association president Rod Shaw called for the abolition of councillors and mayors to save ratepayers more than $2 million a year.

“If you want to cut costs, why don’t we just get rid of all the councillors and the Mayor,” Mr Shaw said.

“This would have real savings of more than $2 million a year with each councillor taking home pay packets of $156,970 and the Mayor earning a substantial $258,539 – that’s millions saved right there.

“And without any of the politicians, we would also be saving on the overseas trips they take and the $30,000 they each get every year for a car along with their telephone bills paid for and their advisers who each earn more than $100,000.

“We had an administrator in 2020 and she did an amazing job without any politicians and the staff and ratepayers were extremely happy and better off because we did not have to pay for politicians.

“They are a luxury we can no longer afford,” Mr Shaw said.

Logan administrator Tamara O’Shea was popular and acted when there were no paid councillors or mayor in 2020-21.

The suggestion of abolishing councillors reignited debate across Logan, with critics pointing to recent council spending, international trips, and a proposal to spend $27,000 to promote bicycle riding in the city.

Mr Shaw questioned the need for the mayor’s recent international trips to Cairo and Singapore along with this week’s international tour of Paris and Manchester.

“We don’t need that. We just want roads, rates, and rubbish. That’s what our rates are for, not these luxury projects and visits to Egypt.”

Mr Raven responded to ratepayers’ concerns claiming the council provided more than 400 services including water and sewer, community programs, libraries, sports facilities, animal management, road maintenance, and rubbish tips.

He said councillors’ pay rises, which will come into effect on July 1, were set by an independent tribunal, not by the council and pointed out that wage increases would have minimal impact on the overall rates, with savings of less than $5 per quarter for ratepayers if councillors worked for free.

Mr Raven was on a trip to Europe and was unavailable for comment on calls by the Ratepayers’ Association’s to cut elected positions to save ratepayer money.

However, a spokesman from Mr Raven’s office said in a statement the Mayor had “begun a conversation” with the community about the council budget and there were plans to engage further.

“It hasn’t been done like this before and the community is responding with creative and constructive suggestions about how to ease budget pressures,” the council said.

“As one of Australia’s fastest growing cities, it’s important we look beyond our horizons to learn more about successful policies and projects in other cities that could be implemented locally to benefit our community.”

However, more than 400 people responded to the Mayor’s public video with many quoting growing dissatisfaction with the way rates were being spent and revenue raised.

Originally published as Ratepayer fury over Logan Mayor’s ‘pay more or get less’ proposal