MidCoast Council will be making an application for the annual increase for MidCoast rates to be 2.25% for the 2022-23 financial year.
Each year the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) sets the annual increase for Council rates and this is normally in the 2.25-2.5% range.
For 2022-23, IPART announced that Councils in NSW would be limited to an annual adjustment to their rates of 0.7% plus a population growth factor which gives the MidCoast a 0.9% increase. This is significantly below the price increases currently being experienced and would remove $1.2 million from the 2022-23 budget and over $14m over the next 10 years.
“This is at a time when we are experiencing year on year damage to our roads from rains and floods and cost are generally increasing by around 6-7% – and for the construction supplies we need for these projects we are seeing increases of up to 30%,” Mayor Claire Pontin explained.
As a result of a State-wide lobby by NSW Councils, the State Government has advised that Councils can apply to IPART to increase rates for next year back to the level they have been budgeting for – to a maximum of 2.5%.
Mayor Pontin said based on earlier advice from IPART, Council had been expecting a 2.25% rise and had factored this into Council’s long-term financial plan and budget for the coming year.
Mayor Pontin also welcomed the news that IPART will be undertaking a broader review of its rate peg methodology.
“The current rate peg methodology means our income growth does not match the increase in the cost of providing services, so an overall look at the system is well overdue. I don’t know how they got this so wrong.”
