Have you got your rates bill yet? If so can you believe it?

Is there any other organisation on earth that has such an increase in costs as council rates?

Cleaning out an over stuffed file draw the other day, I came across my annual rate notice from 1987. $128 seemed a reasonable high figure for practically nothing.

There was a library in town I could use, & a tip about 7Km away. Not much really, but I didn't pay much.

Five years later after rises of over 40% each year they stood at $680 a year, for no more service. I wrote a complaining letter to the editor, pointing out that with similar rises, in just 10 years my rates would exceed my gross income. Many others wrote similar letters. I don't know if it helped, but the rises did diminish somewhat.

My current notice, for the same property is for 6 months. Perhaps they think we don't realise the difference. Annualised it is now $2152, & they have closed the tip. We now have to drive 26Km. More cost effective they said. For bl00dy who, certainly not the rate payers.

I have always had this problem with math, I like seeing the answer. So my new rate represents a whopping 1607% increase in 25 years. Yes that's right one thousand six hundred & seven percent.

All I can say is Campbell HELP! The state bureaucracy may have blown up like a bloated cow, & smell just as bad, but they are nothing compared to councils. They represent a whole herd of bloat, & stink even worse.

How about mandating a reduction of 20% a year in council staffing, until our rates drop suitably. People can't be expected to cop these ridiculous rate increases, & continue to receive just inflation equaling wage increases.

Bureaucracies have gone wild, & must be stopped.

I have to agree hasbeen.
My rates for semi rural living are above those SOME pay right in town, for homes of far more value.
My only council service is rubbish bin collection , but I must take it to road not my lane.
A felling, even smell exists, slothfulness inability to carry out even the most simple task.
Council chambers is a palace.
It is inhabited by folk who have no need to work.
And at every point from town gardens to mayor is wasting what they get.
Every one from councilors down has their nose in the trough grants and such.
I think local government is wasteful and should go.
My rates had an extra 8% impost so now pay even more for the nothing we get in return.

You are probably right Hasbeen. There probably is a whole lot of inefficiency in local government. We could probably get by perfectly well with considerably improved efficiency and much lower rates.

But…. it could also be that many issues have just accumulated over the years as the population has grown, and that they have reached the point where they have to be attended to.

Population growth does that, you know! It creates all manner of problems with long lag times.

And when things can’t be let go any longer, they can be VERY expensive to fix up.

So let’s be careful about a carte blanche condemnation of councils, without having a good close look at their budgets and works programs.

I don't use my local Libraries, parks, swimming pools or community centres either. All I want is to have the roads and public areas kept in reasonable condition and my garbage collected but I have to pay for everything else regardless.

The Howard government attacked Student Unions for doing exactly the same thing. Maybe Councils should also be "user pays" systems.

There probably is a whole lot of inefficiency in local government.
Ludwig,
probably ? Are you living in a bubble ?

im more concerned re the cost of power[specificly..residential tarrif 11..that now has a 'service fee per metering point..of 26.170 [cents per day]..

just for acces via a meter..going to cost 25 bucks..plus power..-@25 cents per kwh..[last bill my tarrif 11 was 1 dollar 65 cents]..[i expect it at the next bill to be..27 dollars

service fees are criminal

its the same thing with water meters..
sewrage..yep councils are bloated..but like they say...change it

nominate..get elected..findout the council is afectivly broke..and you will find you cant change a thing neither..curses upon fees[a thing that increaed steadilly..from arround the time bankers stopped paying intrest..on savings.

I wrote::

< There probably is a whole lot of inefficiency in local government. >

Indi, you replied::

<< Ludwig, probably ? Are you living in a bubble ? >>

So you can assert that in every council across the country that there is definitely a whole lot of inefficiency?

I think not.

Councils are under pressure to both keep rates down and to provide all the services that their communities need.

These two pressures will at least in some instances, under good leadership, mean that efficiency is pretty damn good, I would think.

Ludwig I would not be too concerned at that jab, it is standard for some.
Councils are not our Friends, in NSW we vote for then in two months.
The unseemly rush to be elected, for no reason other than self interest is painful.
We would be better served by contracted administrators in every one.
Not mayors councilors and every administrator held to account.