Gunnedah to proceed with Special Rate Variation

Gunnedah Shire Council says it has made the “difficult but necessary decision” to proceed with a Special Rate Variation.

At an Extraordinary Meeting yesterday, it was noted that a Special Rate Variation (SRV) was needed to address Council’s financial sustainability and maintain essential community infrastructure and service levels.

“It’s time to plan for the future of our Shire,” said Mayor, Colleen Fuller.

“Gunnedah Shire Council spoke with the community about a proposed application for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) to maintain and potentially enhance the services it currently receives.

“We listened to what the community told us and have developed a revised proposal based on the feedback we received which is crucial in shaping Gunnedah’s future.”

While there was strong support for no SRV indicated in the community feedback, there was equally strong support for levels of service to at least be maintained or even improved, which is not possible without an SRV, the Mayor said.

The original SRV proposal was for a permanent cumulative 38.88% increase over two years with a 24% increase in year one and 12% increase in year two. The community feedback indicated that the year one increase was too high.

Council says it considered a range of scenarios in response to the community feedback and has determined to proceed with a Special Rate Variation over two years that is 37.67% cumulative but caps the increase on Residential, Business and Farmland rate categories at 15% per year (32.25% cumulative). The balance of the revised SRV of 37.67% cumulative is to be sourced from the Mining rating category.

Six SRV scenarios were included in the report to Council for consideration and the options were robustly debated at yesterday’s meeting.

“Given the current financial position of the Council and the significant challenges that face local government in relation to increased costs associated with cost-shifting, high inflation and natural disasters, Council has made a balanced determination on the SRV that considers the potential impacts on Council’s services and the essential infrastructure it supports and the community,” Council said in a statement.

“Council was also mindful of community feedback regarding efficiency and productivity and included an action to strive for improvement through efficiency gains and operational savings and report on progress in May each year.”

The option of a lower SRV offset by savings was considered by Council. However, it was also acknowledged that Council operates in a highly legislatively constrained environment and there are minimum levels of service that Council is required to support.

“In this environment, it is difficult to nominate guaranteed savings that could assist with reducing the impact of a Special Rate Variation. The decision that Council has made is responsible but allows for flexibility in that we will continue to strive for efficiency in the way we can deliver services.”

The community will be invited to have their say on the revised SRV proposal.

“I would like to thank my fellow councillors and staff for what has been a great team approach to this very important process and to ensuring the outcomes meet the needs of our community as best as possible while also maintaining a range of efficiency and productivity measures,” said Mayor Fuller.