COL Murray’s call for businesses to chip-in for funding large local events has divided his council colleagues.
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Councillors are split on the idea with their stances ranging from utterly opposed, to on-the-fence, while some thought it was pretty sound and had merit ahead of Tuesday’s ordinary meeting.
General manager Paul Bennett says his report on the proposal will probably land on the council agenda next March.
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Mark Rodda issues the strongest opposition to the idea of new levy on businesses and wondered how it could be managed fairly.
“It’s a bit of an impost to businesses that are already struggling,” Cr Rodda told The Leader.
“They provide a service, employ people, who are ratepayers too, and then we want to reach in again for more revenue, it’s not on.”
Charles Impey said there could be other places for council search for a revenue stream from events.
“I’d like to see more emphasis on getting funds from the event sponsors that are multi-billion dollar organisations rather than a levy on local businesses,” he said.
Cr Impey also wasn’t convinced retailers, in particular, made more money during the country music festival.
“There’s a lot of detail to come, like how often will they will be charged? Is it for every event or only some?” he said.
Phil Betts was sitting on-the-fence with the mayor’s proposal to look for an events’ revenue stream until the GM’s report was returned.
“It’s total speculation at the moment,” he said.
“I’m happy to look at it and we want to analyse it closely.
“Until we look at it, we don’t know what the options are, it may not be feasible.”
Deputy Mayor Helen Tickle said she was a supporter of small business and new charge would have to be “broad and equitable” and the “tourism and hospitality sectors couldn’t be singled out”.
“I’m opposed to any new fees or charges on small business,” she said.
Glenn Inglis said council must always look for equitable ways to raise its revenue streams to offset rising costs and Cr Murray’s idea was “worthy of investigation”.
“To identify exactly who receives an ongoing benefit and who does not from council funding major events is very problematic,” he said.
“Further, not all businesses directly benefit from major events. So, to just place a special rate on all business properties, for example, is not equitable and would not receive my support.”
Russell Webb said it needed to be talked about, but “there’s merit in the principle”.
“It’s a matter of working out how it’s applied and how it’s conveyed to the community.
“It needs to be talked about, business rates in town are comparatively lower.
“It’s just how we do it fairly.”
Manilla’s Jim Maxwell said getting bigger contributions from businesses “was a very sound idea”, but he anticipated “administrative” challenges, if it went ahead.
“it would be hard to know who pays what, when and how,” he said.
“It would be hard to administrate.”
Cr Murray will float the idea at tonight’s council meeting in his mayoral minute.
“These events come at a cost to council, and by extension, the rate paying community of the Tamworth region,’’ he said.
“It is important that council is proactive in ensuring those who benefit most from the attraction, management and subsidisation of major events are also making an appropriate contribution towards the cost of hosting those events.”
Juanita Wilson agreed it was worth investigating and if something was implemented, it’d have to be a broad spread.
“We want to get the maimum benefit out of the events calendar,” she said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“I’m prepared for the GM to investigate.
“I don’t think isolating the business community is the way to go.”