General News
21 June, 2024
Rate rise of $196 a year
A FREEZE on jobs over the next 12 months and close scrutiny of spending are some of the aspects of this year’s Cairns Regional Council’s record $669 million budget.
Mayor Amy Eden said after the council was elected in March, councillors and senior staff spent the next 50 days finetuning the budget to cut a proposed 7.9 per cent rate rise to 6.7 per cent.
The average ratepayer will pay $196 more in rates, from $2906 a year to $3102. Last year the rise was 5.99 per cent ($201 extra, double that of the previous year of 3.1 per cent). The 2023-24 budget was $433.5m but didn’t include the Cairns Water Security Stage 1 project which has been allocated $217.7m this year.
Cr Eden said when councillors first met in budget workshops, “it centred first on minimising any additional pressures on cost of living, by making intricate and carefully calculated revisions to decrease the planned rate rise from 7.9 per cent to 6.7 per cent – no small feat in the face of escalating costs on so many fronts”.
“This is not the budget of my dreams, it is a business-as-usual budget, and a budget that was 90 per cent developed and locked in by the previous council by the time we were elected,” she said. Cr Eden blamed the previous council for the larger rate rise and the current tight financial situation for not including election pledges such as $1000 rate relief for first home buyers, $2 summer swims and tierd water pricing but does include free e-waste and white waste disposal.
But Cr Brett Moller hit back, saying high interest rates, high CPI and increasing labour and material costs were to blame for the financial circumstances.
Cr Eden said the subsidy to pensioner ratepayers would be increased to $320 per year, with eligibility criteria widened to provide relief to 1200 more households than last year.
“Previously, the subsidy amount did not increase in line with rate rises and the eligibility criteria required all ratepayers on the title to be pension card holders,” she said.
Deputy mayor Brett Olds said he expected the 6.7 per cent rate rise to be the highest over the next four years.
Residential water charges will increase by 13 cents per kilolitre and commercial water by 14 cents per kilolitre. The hourly fee at the Lake St carpark will be $1.50 an hour (down from $2.10 an hour), capped at $10 per day. A daily rate will be $6 at the Grafton St carpark. On-street parking fees will increase by 10 cents an hour to $2.20 an hour.
