Liverpool Plains Shire Council has voted almost unanimously to push ahead with its controversial rate rise.
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At its council meeting on Wednesday, all but one councillor voted to seek approval from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) to introduce the hike.
As part of the Special Rate Variation (SRV), council is seeking to increase rates by up to 25.97 per cent over the course of three years.
It's a jump of almost eight per cent each financial year, with two per cent rate pegging factored in.
Deputy Mayor Ken Cudmore and councillor Paul Moules spoke in favor of the motion, while Cr Virginia Black was the "lone" figure in opposition.
Cr Black said while she had heard some criticism in the community about the amount of money spent on community consultation, she said it had been "nothing short of great".
"Quite frankly I think the money was exceptionally well spent," she said.
"I have to say that I might be the lone voice [opposing the rate rise] in here for those in the community ... its not just my own thoughts, this has come back from the research that we have done."
In November 2020, council resolved for general manager Joanne Sangster to use $97,000 from the General Fund Reserves for the community consultation, as well as to prepare a Service Efficiency and Improvement Plan and review of council's organisation structure.
Cr Black said 75 per cent of people in the phone survey, 81 per cent in the online survey and 14 written submissions rejected the increase.
She said more had to be done within council to cut costs prior to expecting ratepayers "to pay such a huge increase".
Cr Cudmore said the internal cost cutting had to go hand-in-hand with the rate rise, but it had to be done together.
"At the moment, to be a responsible council we need to go ahead and vote for these," he said.
"There has been a fair bit of conjecture about the rate rises and I can see why, but think we held off the decision in 2015, and then with the drought and everything we've gone through, I think now is a good a time as any."
In 2015, a Council Improvement Program was put forward which recommended council apply for a SRV to IPART in the 2017/18 financial year, but an application was never made.
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"If everything pans out and we do have some major cost saving, then we can work down to the fact it doesn't have to be eight per cent ... it's not set in concrete, we can make those decisions as we go along," Cr Cudmore.
Cr Moule said to be a "responsible councillor" he had to vote for the rate hike.
"Like other councillors I was able to attend the public forums and we have a huge amount of documentation from the consultants.
"I'm well aware of the heartache that's out there in the community, however I have been elected to be a responsible councillor and as such I am aware of the financial position of council and the need to have this rate rise to catch up on backlog works. It's not just going into another pocket."
