The accountant and the dentist – they’re two chores most of us wish we could delay indefinitely. But we know, too, that the longer we leave them, the greater the chance of pain down the track. So we get on with them.
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It should the same with rate increases.
As Shoalhaven City Council prepares to lodge its submission for hefty rates hikes to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, there is plenty of talk about the pain that will result if the increases are allowed.
And there is no doubt for ratepayers on fixed incomes it will make balancing the household books trickier. For them, every small increase adds up. It’s easy to say $11 a month or $2.50 a week is not so onerous but for people on tight budgets whose income is static, each small price rise – electricity, petrol, food, rates – compounds to make life increasingly difficult.
Those opposing the rates increases say a more gradual approach would be better. The trouble is the horse has already bolted and the time for those gradual increases has already passed. A lack of political will to impose them over the past eight years, according to Mayor Amanda Findley, has landed the city where it is today – stuck between the rock of big hikes and the hard place of having to reduce council services.
Like death and taxes, price increases are an inescapable reality but if managed responsibly the pain that comes with them can be minimised. But past councils have failed to confront the need for more revenue if city is to maintain its assets, including roads, and provide the level of service its community expects.
The time for action had to come. Even so, it does not mean rates will go up by the level council has voted to argue for. The decision rests with IPART and there is no guarantee it will sign off on the proposed increases. If it does not, Cr Findley says the only plan B is to reduce services.
That will be as unpopular as rates rises in a city already fed up with the poor state of its roads, parks and Nowra CBD. It will require more hard conversations with the 47 towns and villages that make up the city, each of which will rightly want to defend its own patch.
If the increase is approved, council will have to convince ratepayers the extra money it is extracting from them is being spent well. The community will need assurance money is not being wasted, that services are being delivered and maintenance carried in the most cost-effective way possible.
