February 12, 2016
by Dafyd Martindale
With the four-yearly local government elections now just over a month away, it seems clear the Road Levy remains an issue South Burnett candidates will need to address openly and honestly.
The South Burnett Regional Council introduced the Road Levy in 2013 after the Federal Government stripped away $1.4 million of the region’s annual road maintenance funding.
It was originally thought the levy would only last a year.
I expect Council hoped the government would soon see sense, realise it had made a mistake, and restore our region’s Federal Assistance Grant (FAG) funding to historical levels.
But the inability of the government to explain its calculations – and now a three-year freeze they’ve put on all FAGs – means the Road Levy has stayed a line item on our region’s rate bills longer than anyone would like. And it seems likely to stay a while yet.
Understandably, many of us resent that we have to contribute towards the maintenance of our region’s roads.
Residents in Brisbane or Toowoomba don’t, do they?
Or do they?
Earlier this week at a Mayoral candidates debate organised by the Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce, three of the four candidates in attendance said they felt the Council had little choice but to keep the levy in place until the government restored the level of road funding our region should be entitled to.
Only one candidate – Michael Brown – said he was opposed to the levy and would work to have it scrapped if he gained office.
When the candidates were asked what they would do to remove it, their answers agreed on one thing:
If the Road Levy was axed, we would face two stark choices – we’ll either see our regional road network fall apart, or we’ll lose Council services such as pools, libraries, public halls and rural waste transfer stations.
Mr Brown said he was not in favour of seeing the road network collapse but admitted he would consider closing “maybe a pool or two, and a dump or two”.
Now this might sound like a good idea to some residents who oppose the levy.
But hang on a moment, let’s do the maths:
The Road Levy raises $3.1 million a year, and all of it is spent maintaining our region’s 3000km-plus road network, more than half of it high-maintenance dirt roads that seem to be damaged every time we get heavy rains.
If Mr Brown closed “maybe a pool or two, and a dump or two” he might save $500,000 a year.
And if he closed all six Council pools, he would only save $800,000.
This means he would still have to find another $2.6 million a year in savings to eliminate the Road Levy completely.
Clearly, anyone who wants to eliminate the levy would have to make deep and painful cuts to Council services to find the money.
And they would also need to hold a majority on the Council to pass this decision.
Why?
Because any individual anti-levy Councillor – even an anti-levy Mayor – can do nothing if the majority of other councillors don’t agree with them.
Now, most of the Divisional candidates we’ve spoken to hold the same view as the majority of Mayoral candidates at the KCCI’s forum.
They believe we need to keep a workable road network AND retain the level of Council services we’ve become accustomed to, and feel that’s more important than the extra $3.80 per week the Levy costs all ratepayers.
So any candidate who elects to take the populist route of promising to eliminate the levy may find – if they get elected – they’ve made a promise that will come back to haunt them when they’re unable to keep it.
Alternately, voters who back anti-levy candidates – if there are enough anti-levy candidates and enough voters supporting them – may find our region will quickly become a lot bleaker and emptier than they ever imagined.
Either way, at least we’ll have driveable roads …
