Julie Matheson
Former Subiaco Councillor | Certified Financial Planner | Western Australia Party Convenor
Rate Rise Trickery
We know what you are up to Mr Barnett when you link Council rate rises to your plans for force councils to amalgamate. Trickery.
The West, 28 May 2014
Article here: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/latest/a/23898215/small-councils-mean-rate-rises-barnett/
Your department for Metropolitan Council Reform has not provided us ill-informed ratepayers of just how much amalgamations are going to cost in Council rate rises.
Some ill-informed ratepayers have resorted to researching the Key Data used in the Robson Report to justify the cost of amalgamation. The Report indicated that many of the Metro Area Councils met appropriate ratios. After researching the subsequent annual reports of a representative sample of those which fell short of appropriate ratios (below average, nearer ‘basic’), including our local LGA, only to find in the main they had overcome deficient ratios by 2013 with many in the ‘advance’ category. They clearly were using the ratios to guide performance.
The absence of data is in line with the absence of information after more than a year’s requests of the Minister and his department to relieve ratepayers of our status: “ill-informed” in relation to a business case for amalgamations or ‘reform’.
What we do know is that the experiences from Queensland and Geraldton show that amalgamations cost more than Mr Barnett is prepared to admit.
WALGA Metropolitan Reform Breakfast, 26 May 2014, Ref. Ken Diehm, CEO of City of Greater Geraldton
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