By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
Geelong’s council has used “an old trick” to get around rates capping, according to a retired senior municipal manager.
Increasing the waste service charge lets the council effectively exceed the 2.5 per cent cap on rates increases by half a per cent said former Banyule City Council corporate services director Keith Yeo.
The waste service charge appears on rates bills as a separate item to the general rate.
The council’s 2016/2017 budget increases the charge by 4.75 per cent.
The waste hike was “not in the spirit of the new legislation,” Mr Yeo said in his budget submission.
“The increase is a de facto way of increasing the overall average general rate increase of 2.5 per cent. This is an old trick.
“This is totally unacceptable and many ratepayers cannot continue to absorb the never-ending local government rating increases significantly above CPI.”
The waste service charge was a regressive tax that hurt ratepayers with lower-valued properties, said Mr Yeo, who lives at St Leonards.
“For many people their income increase is limited, whether on Centrelink pensions or lower paid people.
“Council needs to curb its costs and increase its efficiency across the board, just as the average citizen needs to do in the difficult economic times.”
Mr Yeo said many councils did not have a waste service charge because it was considered just one of the many council services.
He also questioned the council’s salaries bill which would increase 5.43 per cent and 6.9 per cent over the budget’s four-year forward estimates.
The increases were “quite outrageous in this economic climate,” Mr Yeo said.
City Hall administrators chair Dr Kathy Alexander said this week’s public hearing on the city’s proposed budget was an important step in developing effective community input.
The City received numerous submissions on various projects around the municipality, she said.
The final budget will be set at the administrators’ next ordinary council meeting on 28 June.
