Debt hike sparks fear

Alex de Vos
Residents fear Surf Coast Shire will face another financial crisis after council’s annual budget predicted debt would balloon to almost $17 million over the next three years.
Surf Coast Community and Ratepayers Association’s Lyn Smith said the “colossal” figure, reported in last week’s Independent, had sparked concern around the shire.
“It’s huge for such a small population of only about 20,000,” Ms Smith said.
Surf Coast councillors approved their 2008-2009 budget last week, predicting debt to rise from an existing $4.5 million to $16.7 million in 2010-2011.
The borrowings will help pay for new shire offices at the northern entry to Torquay. The 2008-2009 budget allocated $3.5 million of the debt for the new “community and civic precinct”.
Ms Smith said the new shire offices were not worth the cost to ratepayers.
“I don’t think council should move – there’s so much cost involved,” she said.
“I’m surprised they bought the land there – they’re not even in the centre of town.”
Ms Smith feared a repeat of 2002 when State Government ordered a commission of inquiry into the shire’s finances when debts reached $14 million.
She also attacked council for a budget rates hike of 6.9 per cent.
“Torquay is a mixed community and for an awful lot of the population it’s a large increase,” Ms Smith said.
“There’ll be some people in the community that will find that rate rise astronomical.”
Surf Coast Shire councillor Roly Livingstone, a former corporate executive, defended the growing debt and the rates hike.
He said the debt projections were “still well within” State Government borrowing guidelines for councils.
The shire would cover its repayments with higher charges on developers building new residential estates, Cr Livingstone said.
“It’s covered by developer contributions and once the developer contributions kick in at Spring Creek they will more than meet the expenses.”
Cr Livingstone said the rates increase were necessary to pay for the shire’s capital works program.
“We had to make sure the rates would cover what we want to do.”