UPDATE Thursday, October 31, 3:30pm: Gunnedah Shire Council has deferred the Special Rate Variation decision allow for a further workshop.
Gunnedah Shire Council was last night set to vote on a new recommendation to lift the proposed rate rise from 38.88 per cent to 42 per cent but spread the increase over three years instead of two.
In the first ordinary meeting of the new council, recently elected councillors heard the consultation had fielded extensive community feedback about Gunnedah’s special rate variation (SRV) proposal.
The increase aims to address “financial sustainability and maintain essential community infrastructure and service levels” at Gunnedah council.
In a new move this week, council officers recommended a revised SRV of 42 per cent cumulative (26 per cent above the estimated rate peg) to be phased in over a three-year period and retained permanently starting in 2025-26. Council would also undertake a further round of community engagement on this proposal.
Council’s October business paper noted that the revised SRV proposal ensured that residential, business and farmland rating categories do not increase more than the permanent 38.88 per cent SRV previously consulted on, with the balance of the revised proposed 42 per cent to be sourced from the mining category.
Council said the additional increase to the SRV proposal was “due to the inclusion of an estimated rate peg value of three per cent in the third year”.
The mining sector was chosen to foot the bill for the forecast increase as it was in line with “community feedback that the mining category should make a greater contribution by way of rates, notwithstanding that council recognises that the mining sector makes an overall positive contribution to the economic prosperity of the Gunnedah LGA”.
A “comprehensive report” which outlined all SRV engagement activities and feedback received from the community was also presented to councillors at last night’s meeting.
Key feedback included comments that the community “does not want to pay more rates” – noting current difficult times and costs.
The consultation also noted the community does not want to see a reduction in service levels either and would like to see an increase in some areas, especially in the condition of council roads.
The highest support for the SRV (39 per cent) came through the phone survey, which council said was also the most independent and community wide aspect of the engagement. A total of 39 per cent of phone survey respondents were “somewhat supportive” of the proposed SRV option.
The phone survey included 300 participants and, based on Gunnedah shire’s population size, council said the survey response provided a 95 per cent confidence level in broader community sentiment.
Council’s business paper explained that Gunnedah was in a similar position to many NSW councils facing a poor financial outlook caused by a perfect storm of negative impacts from natural disasters, high inflation and legislative ‘cost-shifting’ by the NSW and Australian governments.
These impacts have resulted in a financial outlook that is “not financially sustainable and action is necessary to ensure that a sustainable path can be determined to support council’s future”.
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