ADELAIDE Plains Council will slash its rate-in-the-dollar for the next financial year, after it locked in its 2020/21 budget last week.
Elected members met last Wednesday to lock in its upcoming budget, after postponing a decision in June to wait for updated property value figures.
Council staff had recommended having no increase to its rate-in-the-dollar, with new homes and property valuation hikes to see its rate revenue jumping by 1.9 per cent.
At the start of the meeting, chief executive officer James Miller described the recommended budget as “considered” and “conservative”.
Instead, elected members pushed slashing the rate-in-the-dollar to ensure no increase to general rate revenue.
As a result, residents will see their property’s rate-in-the-dollar cut by one per cent.
Councillor John Lush said he would “normally” support the original budget, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant council should tighten “the purse strings”.
“Australia is slipping into a deep recession and we had some fairly substantial rate rises last year,” he said.
“So I guess the question is ‘do we extract further money from ratepayers this year to provide them with services we think they need, or do we tighten our belt and make do with the current service level on the current rate revenue’?
“It’s my view that we should change the rate-in-the-dollar to reflect a zero increase in rates this year.”
As a result of the budget changes, the residential rate will be set at 0.458 cents in the dollar.
Councillor Brian Parker supported Cr Lush, saying APC should consider a slashing rates before locking in an operating surplus.
“If you go to a zero rate rise in the dollar, it means we’ll still pick up an increase in rates where there has been property improvement,” he said.
“We need to support all of our ratepayers within Adelaide Plains Council. We’re all going to go through hard times, including farmers, unemployed people and normal domestic landowners within our council area.
“We need to support them and I believe it’s the best way to do it.”
