{"id":34764,"date":"2013-05-28T21:19:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T11:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=34764"},"modified":"2013-05-28T21:19:09","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T11:19:09","slug":"mayor-unhappy-with-tax-collector-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/05\/28\/mayor-unhappy-with-tax-collector-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Unhappy With Tax Collector Role"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann (photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 28, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann isn’t happy that his Council is being forced to collect taxes on behalf of the State Government.<\/p>\n

The Mayor was responding to a pre-Budget briefing released by Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls yesterday.<\/p>\n

Mr Nicholls said the State Government would be expanding – and raising – the existing fire levy into an emergency management, fire and rescue levy and increasing the level.<\/p>\n

The levy would apply to all rateable properties in the State and would be added to council rate notices.<\/p>\n

It has been estimated that metropolitan areas would pay $184 a year and regional and rural areas an average $90 a year.<\/p>\n

The levy is expected to raise $50 million for the State Government in 2014.<\/p>\n

Mayor Kratzmann told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> today that councils collecting taxes for the State Government through amounts added to rates notices has been a sore point with local government for many years.<\/p>\n

He saw several problems with the system:<\/p>\n