THE cause of this massive 8.6 per cent residential rate rise cannot be blamed on inflation and CPI.
I believe the cause of this massive 8.6 per cent rate rise is a Gawler council that refuses to curb its spending, that refuses to cut waste, that refuses to live within its means, that refuses to stop expanding its workforce, and that refuses to focus on its core business.
Mayor Redman regularly proclaims that ToG is a “growth council”, yet the only growth is debt and rising rates.
Any gains from population growth are consumed by ballooning staff growth and wasteful spending.
I believe the past Inat/Redman decade saw, on average, four extra staff added each year.
I believe that four new staff per year needs at least 200 new homes per year to be added and pay rates just to break even.
More than 40 new staff have been added since 2013 under the Redman/Inat administration.
When times are tough households make cuts and go without.
We put off replacing the fridge, we put off the holiday, we put off replacing the daggy old lounge, we focus on the essentials like food, school and medical.
Gawler council should do the same.
Our elected members might like to consider the impact of their rate rise by walking in the shoes of a council employee, a single mum on less than $65,000 per year, rather than by walking in the shoes of a highly paid council executive earning anything from $100,000- $300,000 per year.
This single mum drives to work in her own car, she doesn’t have a council paid petrol card, she can’t save for a mortgage because she pays $450 a week for a substandard rental, she has one kid in childcare and the other in primary school.
Everything is costing more – food, fuel, rent, childcare, medical, school fees et cetera.
Councillors should think about the impact of their rate rise on that single mum.
I believe an 8.6 per cent rate rise to pay for ballooning staff costs, to waste on boundary reform, to spend a further $2.3 million on the Pioneer Park wall and to spend on all the non-essential projects contained in the budget is totally unacceptable.
Our elected councillors must reject this budget and its planned 8.6 per cent rate rise.
I urge residents to view the budget and voice their concerns by visiting ow.ly/ sq9y50RroJb.
Ian Tooley, Gawler East
