Council rates...

[acropolite (Phil)]

I'm angry.
Just got a bill today for our council rates for a little house we have in Launceston. Would you believe $1328 in rates. Traditionally our rates have been set higher than the rest of the country, presumably to offset the lower land values but as Tasmanian properties have risen to similar levels to those on the North Island, our councils are having a field day. Our local council is expert at wasting money and employing people who basically do nothing.

What are council rates in your location and do you think they are justified. If they're cheaper in NZ can I come and live there.....

[slice of heaven]

What rate do you pay per $ of land value Phil.
The council here slugs at .006182 per $ of land value.(Last years, havent recieved this years yet)
The current council here is doing a great job compared to the last lot that let the town deteriorate over a 15 year period. If you can see progress and value for money there's no reason to complain, if not, vote them out.
I'm glad I dont live 1 street over though, the property value for the same size house as mine is more than double in the new development.

[h0ughy (David)]

Nice to see that it is the same everywhere else! mate I work for a Council, and I can see where the money goes. Do you have a proactive council that builds and promotes community or one that just manages to survive and not much spent on infrastructure on development of services?

[TidaLpHasE]

$1020, for Melbourne West, a little better than way down there in Tas, mind you i can still count a number of light poles that are leaning over and crooked.

Wasting money ? Councils and Government Departments wouldn't be guilty of that would they

I mean a current state MP approved $97,000 to paint some of our trees blue are these people for real ?

Funny enough the council stopped this from happening, only after the so called "artist" tree hugger, vandal, finger painter had been paid something like $70 odd thousand, for his , more like our money wasting venture.

It's a joke that these so called academics, can waste huge amounts of our money, while neglecting obvious needs in the community.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

$458. P.A.

But we don't have a rubbish truck come around on a weekly basis.
We go to our little tip which is open twice a week, is only a few minutes drive and FREE!

The Residents of our town were asked if they prefer the tip trips or would they rather have a Rubbish truck at an additional $30 P.A. added to the rates.

We unanimously voted 'tip trips'.

Real Estate is cheap here too! The occasional $50k house still pops up every now & then, $90 - 100k are common.

And we have a good council which everybody is happy with which seems rare these days!

[rmcpb (Rob)]

Our rates ar as high as the Melbourne ones. The jury is still out on whether the Council is a waste of time but remember they are all a bunch of pollies so what do you expect?

[BC]

Ours have just gone up 73% to $1,150. But being rural we don't get water, sewerage or garbage collection, we look after all that ourselves. We do, however, get a sealed road to our front gate as a consolation prize.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Our council works on AAV, I.E. assessed annual value which, I think, is an airy fairy estimate of what you would get if the property was rented. The council charges 8.0570 Cents in the dollar general rate, 3.5870 Sewer rate, fire contribution of 1.2850 Waste management of $85 flat Water service charge of $30 and water rate of 1.8440 c in the dollar. Then they have the hide to charge for each kilolitre of water used throughout the year. They are proposing to build a new swimming complex @ >$20 million despite shutting down a perfectly good working indoor pool and having an excellent existing 3 pool centre (which it was originally proposed to upgrade from memory to a similar standard at a cost of around 8 million) as well as 1 other recreational swinning pool at the first basin. The main problem with our local councils, is that frequently the people that are elected are self interested business people who can't get their own way and manage to do what they want by getting elected to council. Either that or they're wannabee pollies who have nothing but self interest at heart. We frequently have council managers "resign" under dubious circumstances because the mayors and councillors make their task nearly difficult if not impossible.
In answer to your question Signor h(zero)ughy our council is somewhat pro active and I must admit the services in our city are on average quite good. What I object to is funding other peoples obsessions; i.e. the local football ground upgrade to AFL standards and the construction of the afformentioned swimming centre. I'm happy with modest improvements and expansion to existing infrastructure as has been the case in the past but in these days of "user pays" I feel throwing 10's of millions of ratepayers dollars at projects which benefit only a small part of the community (and business) is simply an unfair burden on the ratepayer.

[davidpretorius]

hey phil,

mine is in total rate for the year $2818.58

reading the lovely and glossy and expensive launceston city council news that came with the bombshell

"...many residential properties would have seen rises in their valuations reflecting the increased value of the residential property market in Launceston. These increased valuations do not result in increased rates income for the council. They do result in a change in the amount of rates that are paid by individual property owners...."

does this make sense. if i pay more rates, then surely the council gets more rates?

i know from my honours degree in applied maths that left hand side of the equation equals right hand side and that you can't increase something on the left, without the right side. what am i missing????

i might just pay last years rates plus the 5.4% rate increase, because using their logic, changes in what i pay do not affect what the council takes in rates!

[slice of heaven]

I recieved my rates for the year Friday,the rate in the dollar was reduced by 10.43% which sounds good, but the property value was increased by around 10%.
Net saving compared to last year $16.01.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Dave; It's beyond a joke and totally out of control. Between local council, government Telstra and the Banks we are having our valuable earnings (that we could be buying more astro gear with) stolen. It's nothing more than legalised theft when there are no checks and balances applied. As for the statement that the council gets no more revenue, I'd like to know what kind of drugs the author of that statement was on when they concocted it....