Tweed residents will have a rate rise of 6.35 per cent, which includes a Special Rate Variation (SRV) of 2.35 per cent. The SRV was approved by Tweed Shire Councillors at last night’s meeting.
The SRV of 2.35 per cent was approved by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) – an independent body that determines the level of rates able to be collected by councils across NSW – on 13 June. With the standard 4 per cent pegged rate rise already approved for the Tweed by IPART it raises the overall rate increase to 6.35 per cent.
‘The only way Council can increase the money it collects above the approved rate-pegged amount set by IPART is by applying for a Special Rate Variation, which Tweed has not done for 10 years,’ says Tweed Shire Mayor, Chris Cherry.
The vote was taken as part of the adoption of the Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework 2022-2026 Delivery Program and the 2023-2024 Operational Plan which will see the minimum residential rate, combined with annual charges of water, sewerage and waste, rise by an average of $104.25 for the year.
Keeping options open
Originally the councillors had approved the application for an SRV but said they would look at council’s expenditure looking at ways to reduce their costs instead of seeking the SRV. The areas identified for cost reduction were: reducing the council’s aquatic facilities hours, reduction in rangers, and the closure of the Kingscliff Library among others.
The council had a shortfall of approximately $1.6M in funding after the application of the standard peg rate increase.
The extra costs Council needed to fund includeed:
- compliance officers previously funded by environmental enforcement levies recently removed by the NSW Government
- upgrading core IT business systems to make it easier and safer to do business with Council
- additional cyber security
- increased insurance premiums.
‘The community consultation at the facilitated sessions 70 per cent of the people supported a special rate variation. In the online survey it was pretty much 50/50,’ Mayor Cherry told the meeting.
‘I think I heard from a lot of people that, [they] really value the services that we offer, and they want to make sure that we can have those going forward. So I think that there was definitely a majority of people saying they are supportive of having a special rent rate variation where the average rate payer may have an increase of $37 a year.’
Opposition to SRV
Deputy Mayor Reece Byrnes and councilor Warren Polglase were clear that they didn’t support the SRV. Cr Polglase said that the fact the councillors had earlier given themselves a pay rise due to the reclassification of the council as a Regional Strategic Area meant that he couldn’t support the SRV.
Cr Byrnes has opposed the SRV since it was proposed and told the meeting that there was ‘no easy door to walk through on all of this. I recognise that and the efforts of my colleagues but as things stand out there, I just can’t support adding to the burden of people when times are very difficult.
Referring to the councillors increase in remuneration he said that ‘the message that we send to the community tonight, if we do this, is that there’s one rule for them and one rule for us.’
At this point Cr James Owen asked Cr Byrnes which services he would cut if there was no SRV and Cr Byrnes asked Cr Owen to put the question in an email.
Mayor Cherry quickly put an end to their argy bargy and called the vote. The motion passed five to two with Crs Byrnes and Polglase voting against the SRV.
