It’s considered dangerous to compare oneself to others; you can tie your self-worth to external metrics and risk creating an unwinnable cycle of inadequacy: your private struggles vs the highlight reels of others. So perhaps Byron Shire Council (BSC) should be praised for putting comparisons on the table, or perhaps our conviction that we are more desirable, more interesting and more socially conscious can never really be challenged by comparisons to lesser shires without our unique struggles.
The factsheet supplied by BSC comparing its rates to other local councils shows how much it spends, for every $100, in areas like construction, parks, enforcement, and water and sewer, but does not actually compare the residential, business, water, sewer, waste rates and charges, etc. that you pay with those paid by ratepayers in other local, and comparable, Group 4 councils.
According to www.yourcouncil.nsw.gov.au/your-council, BSC charges more for residential rates, farmland rates, water, sewer, and waste when compared to Ballina, Lismore, Clarence and Richmond shires. Only Byron’s business rates are lower. In the Byron Shire the average business rate is $3,984.60, though it does not identify the higher Byron Bay Business Activity Rate or account for how much it contributes. Lismore tops the business rate at $5,158.80.
All six other average BSC rates and charges are higher than the average of all Group 4 councils. This creates an opportunity to increase business rates, which could offset increases to residential rates.
Many of Byron’s businesses say they are struggling at the moment, and obviously they are a source of employment for the town, but Byron Shire businesses rely heavily on tourism and that places an added cost to maintain tourist infrastructure and services for our visitor economy. The recent roundtable presentation by BSC with the Mullumbimby Residents Association confirmed BSC has not reviewed the business rate as part of an special rate variation (SRV) since the 1990s.
The last SRV for residents was in 2017 for renewing, maintaining, and improving the Shire’s critical infrastructure network – not sure how successful that’s been! Perhaps, rather than another SRV for residents’ rates, it is time to examine the rates paid by businesses, and the costs for those businesses borne by the broader community.
Possibly the southern end of Jonson Street from Carlyle through to Browning streets and the northern side of Shirley Street could be subject to the Byron Bay Business Activity Rate, this has been mooted in the past, but is yet to be done.
It is not easy for councils. Costs have been shifted to them by the state government while the Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs), which provide untied funding from the federal government to local councils across Australia, have dropped from roughly one per cent of federal tax revenue down to approximately 0.5 per cent. But in a tight market, the BSC needs to look clearly at what it is servicing, who’s paying for it and if its rates system is fair and equitable for everyone.
Aslan Shand, editor
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