July 16, 2014
by Dafyd Martindale
The South Burnett Regional Council will hand down its 2014-15 Budget nine days from now.
After months of complex, closed-door negotiations between councillors and staff, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann will deliver his third Budget on Friday, July 25.
The natural question many South Burnett ratepayers are asking is: What sort of increases can we expect?
Three similar councils the South Burnett shares borders with – Toowoomba, Western Downs and Gympie – may provide some clues.
All three handed down their Budgets late last month, and all of them posted only modest increases in their general rates very close to CPI (2.6 per cent).
Toowoomba led the charge for the hip-pocket nerve with an increase in their general rate of 4 per cent, followed by Gympie (3 per cent) and Western Downs (2.6 per cent).
However the TRC posted no increase at all in water charges, while sewerage charges rose just 2.5 per cent and waste collection charges 2.4 per cent.
Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio estimated the average across-the-board impact for most ratepayers was likely to be about 2.6 per cent, though he noted some would pay a bit more because of recent property valuation increases in some parts of the Garden City.
Gympie, by contrast, applied their 3 per cent general rate increase to water access, water consumption and sewerage charges as well. Only waste collection charges saw a nil increase.
Gympie Mayor Ron Dyne said the increase was one of the lowest his Council had posted “for a number of years” and local newspapers agreed, hailing the 3 per cent slug as “the best news in a decade”.
Western Downs’ minimal general rate increase of 2.6 per cent – which was right on CPI – was offset by sharply increased water access charges (up 10 per cent), sewerage charges (up 10.2 per cent) and waste collection charges (up 12.2 per cent). Water consumption charges also rose by 3 per cent.
But the rises in Western Down’s service charges were partly prompted by that Council’s poor financial circumstances and its desire to get back to a sound fiscal footing quickly (Western Downs is projecting a surplus of $7 million from this year’s Budget, against Gympie’s expected $163,000 surplus and Toowoomba’s hoped-for $712,000 surplus).
Mayor Ray Brown also noted that his council was racing to address a mining explosion centred around Chinchilla which has created demands on infrastructure.
In the South Burnett, the SBRC has already hinted the $200 per annum road levy it introduced last year when federal road grants were unexpectedly cut will have to stay if the council is to continue servicing the shire’s 6000km road network.
A $100 rise in the sewerage charge has also been tipped to help pay for a new Kingaroy Wastewater Treatment Plant, which could cost as much as $26 million.
Speaking at the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Meet’n’Greet on Monday night, Council CEO Ken McLoughlin said the new Budget would be “very kind” to South Burnett residents, but refused to elaborate further.
However, if our region’s neighbours are anything to go by, it seems likely the hip pockets of ratepayers won’t be too heavily slugged 10 days from now.
After years of steep rate rises all around the State as newly merged councils struggled to absorb the costs of forced amalgamation and deal with new rules that make them set aside funds to cover asset depreciation while delivering balanced budgets we may, perhaps, have finally turned a corner.
Only time – nine days of it, anyway – will tell.
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