Tamworth council receives feedback on proposed rate increase

Tamworth Regional Council is currently undertaking community consultation on a proposal for a special rate variation (SRV) that would up average residential rates by $221.50 in the next financial year, and $212.82 the year after.

Ratepayers and other residents have been voicing their opinions on the proposed rate increase, and council's first in-person community consultation session on Tuesday, October 17, provided a window into how the consultation process is going.

"On the 'Have Your Say' website we're collecting all of the information from every community member who puts in a submission, that includes the positive and negative," council's executive manager of strategy and performance Jason Collins said.

"We've had about a thousand already and I would encourage you to do that because we then have to produce a report not only to council, but also to IPART around what the feedback is."

At the in-person session in the Tamworth Community Centre, councillors and senior staff heard a range of concerns about the SRV including council "wasting money" with how it uses its buildings, the low quality of the region's roads, and ratepayers' ability to cop the rate increase.

One resident called for a petition to be set up for residents against the SRV.

"Wouldn't it be more effective for the council to set up a petition in the office and we could all go and sign it?" she asked.

"You want the money, and we don't want to pay all this money," she said to the mayor directly.

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Tamworth's mayor and the council's general manager fielded most of the public's questions, both saying multiple times that the proposed SRV is needed to prevent a "grim" financial future that would be felt by the entire community.

"I'd just like everybody to understand that at the end of the day, my job as General Manager and my executive team is to stop the organisation from going bankrupt and provide the best services we can with the income available," council's general manager Paul Bennett said.

"If the rate increase doesn't go ahead, that's fine, but that means the community is making a decision to accept a lower level of service, and to be blunt that will have an impact on just about everybody."

Mr Bennett said not getting the SRV would mean an inability to maintain up to a third of council's assets, which would mean worse roads, reduced services at the library and city pound, and less time for the city's pools to remain open.

Mayor Russell Webb opened the consultation session with a brief explanation of what has gotten Tamworth council into its sticky financial situation.

"There's a widening gap between our council's income levels and the growing cost of providing our current services and infrastructure," Cr Webb said.

He then handed the microphone over to one of the architects of the proposed SRV, Janine McKenzie, whose consulting firm Morrison Low has been employed by council to advise on the rate increase.

Ms McKenzie gave a detailed presentation on council's financial position and why the consulting firm recommended a 36.3 per cent increase over the next two years.

The full details of the presentation are available on council's Have your Say website, and the same presentation will be given at consultation sessions in Barraba and Manilla on Wednesday, October 18, as well as in Nundle and Moonbi on Thursday, October 19.

To sum up, Ms McKenzie said the crux of the issue is that inflation is pushing council's expenses up much higher than council can recoup under limitations set by the state regulator IPART.

"For example, over the last two years rates revenue has increased by approximately $1.5 million, but employee costs have also risen by $3.7 million and materials and services by $10.3 million," she said.

But residents weren't fully satisfied with that explanation.

"I understand that a lot of your costs have gone up, but a lot of our costs have gone up too," one ratepayer said.

Ms McKenzie said council is updating its hardship policy to make sure that those who are really struggling with rate increases would have an avenue towards some relief.

Another part of council's argument in favour of the rate variation is that it's relatively small when compared to neighbouring councils.

Earlier this year, Armidale Regional Council received approval for a 58.8 percent special rate variation over the next three years.

IPART also approved rate increases for Walcha, Liverpool Plains, and 14 other councils this year.

Community consultation closes on October 31.

After community consultation, councillors will consider the public's submissions and decide whether to proceed with the rate increase at its meeting on November 28.

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