THE state's revenue raising watchdog will hand down its verdict on Tamworth Regional Council's controversial events levy on Monday.
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While the council has spruiked the potential long-term benefits, it hasn't been unanimously crowd-pleasing in its initial reception.
The council will have an answer from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) on Monday morning on whether it can hit businesses with a new levy in order to create a fund to bring new events to the region.
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The council's director of business, John Sommerlad and director of governance, Chris Weber, are expected to address media on the outcome on Monday morning.
While most of the councillors and the Tamworth Business Chamber have backed the proposed rate rise, the levy has not been well-received in the community.
IPART received just 12 submissions related to the Tamworth rate variation request with 75 per cent registering their objection with the proposal and the remainder chose to have their say anonymously.
Twenty-five per cent of the submissions came from Barraba.
The Barraba submissions questioned the benefit of a such a levy given their geographical distance from the city of Tamworth and emphasised how severely the drought had hit their part of the region.
"Our region is in the grips of a very severe drought, one like never seen before and to impose any extra form of fees/charges only seems to be a kick in the guts for small rural businesses," one submission said.
Meanwhile Tamworth businessman Kevin Weatherall said the whole "North West area was in a mini-depression" in his submission.
"And there is little prospect of this changing," he said.
He also argued people in the community had already successfully organised and run events, naming Nundle's Go For Gold festival, Frost over Barraba, as well as vintage machinery days in Kootingal and Manilla.
"All these events are run with minimal input from council and they bring into town a sustainable amount of money," his submission said.
If IPART approves the council's new levy, it will come into effect from July 1, 2020.
A draft of the council budget for the next financial year revealed the levy's value.
It would raise $125,000 in its first year before going on to pool $270,000 in 2021/22 and $427,000 in 2022/23.