YES, OUR RATES ARE TOO HIGH DOMINIC MOBBS WE have all recently received from the Cassowary Coast Regional Council (CCRC) our rates notice accompanied by a leaflet titled, “Your Rates
Dollars: How They Work For You”. It is useful that Council provides this extra information, but how much of it is slanted to excuse our high level of rates?
The leaflet includes sections implying that here on the Cassowary Coast we pay higher rates because we have a smaller rate base and population density than Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane,
plus higher road maintenance. The message is that the high rates we pay are not the fault of our Council and the rates are reasonable because there are mitigating circumstances. The problem, we
are told, is that councils with lower populations and lower rate bases cannot achieve the lower rate levels of larger cities. The Council leaflet states, “Our rate base is smaller compared to oth-
er Councils, which is why we pay more for services and infrastructure.” On the face of it, this seems logical. But really how relevant are comparisons with major cities like Cairns and Brisbane?
Would it not be more appropriate to compare CCRC with similar sized nearby and coastal based councils in NQ? CCIN took up the challenge and the results are revealing.
BELOW IS THE DATA
Region
Cassowary
Hinchinbrook
Innisfail
Ingham
Douglas Port Douglas
Median UIV ($K) Gen. Rates at Median UIV ($)
68 1487
56 1010
Charges ($)
2437
Total ($) Discount ($) Rates & Charges Total ($) Rates & Charges excl State EM Levy ($)
Main Town
CCRC Excess ($) Population ('000s) Area Km2
Whitsunday Tablelands Burdekin
Mareeba
Mt Isa
Charters Towers
Cooktown Mareeba
Mt Isa
CT
Cook
Bowen
Atherton
Ayr
140 1029
104 1247
97 1262
75 1233
60 1065
80 1216
94 953
49.5 1212
1862
2122
1942
2081
1713
2376
2140
2475
1475
3924 223 3701
2872 0 2872
3151 0 3151
3189 144 3045
3343 63 3280
2947 0 2947
3441 107 3334
3356 122 3234
3428 0 3428
2687 154 2533
3592
2763
3043
2936
3171
2838
3225
3125
3320
2425
29.7 4700
829 10.8 2807
549 12.3 2428
656 35.0 23812
421 25.5 11282
754 17.1 5044
367 4.5 106000
467 22.5 53500
272 18.9 43700
1168 11.9 66400
These are calculated town each of thewater-use regions.ofTo make CCIN come from fair, the Re200kl pa. the comparisons CCIN usedproperty the medi- in the main (from the Qld.inValuer main town in each offor a residential These numbers are numbers used the median unimproved land values for each region (from the Qld. Valuer General’s Reports) and applied a standard water-use The population and General’s Reports) the regions. To make calculated for a resian unimproved land gional profiles comofin200kl and council areaforfigures come fromand theapplied Regional profiles compiled Queensland Government’s council by areathe figures a standard the population comparisons fair, values each region dential property the pa. The piled by the QueensStatisticians Office. HIGHLIGHTED IN THE CHART BELOW ARE COMPARATIVE NET RATES AND CHARGES, PLUS POPULATION DENSITIES
This chart clearly Our rates and charges rainfall and, while shows that all midare the highest of all Hinchinbrook is not size NQ Councils with the mid-size councils quite as wet as Cassowary Coast, they have lower population denin NQ. sity than CCRC have had more severe floodLook particularly at a ing in recent years, lower rates and chargratepayer in Ingham es, some substantially causing much road (Hinchinbrook). This lower. damage. Hinchinbrook area also has high THIS TABLE SHOWS THAT ASSERTION IS ENTIRELY UNTRUE. The amount of roads that Mareeba has to maintain is over 94% higher than Cassowary Coast, and Tablelands is 56% higher, with substantially more unsealed roads. When we consider the KMs of roads to be maintained per thousand residents, CCRC has the least burden. Mareeba certainly has a drier climate, but has the largest road maintenance load per thousand residents – more than twice the challenge of CCRC. CCRC, by having rates and charges at $829pa more than Hinchinbrook, is obtaining over $13million pa more revenue from ratepayers compared to what it would get from charging Hinchinbrook's level of rates. A vast amount of that extra revenue collected goes on non-roads services. If roads are the dominating factor causing the differences, then Mareeba, Hinchinbrook and Tablelands should be the ones with the high rates. Well-known regional economist, Pete Faulkner of Conus Business Consulting, told CCIN, “It is tough for the Cassowary Coast Regional Council to
close the gap. It has grown to that size over decades and it is not the making of one recent council. The cyclones in our region in recent years have had an impact and caused us to renew many assets. That adds to depreciation costs so our depreciation is high compared to some councils. In rough terms our costs are split in thirds between depreciation, labour and services. The ability of any council to alter depreciation is limited, and you cannot change labour costs quickly.” CCIN agrees, addressing this large gap in our rates versus rates in nearby regions cannot happen quickly. Council recently agreed a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) with its workforce that locks in 2.5%pa increases, hence reducing labour charges would be difficult without cuts in employee numbers. So this gap will not be closed in one council term and will undoubtedly take several terms to fix. However, councils must not throw their hands in the air by peddling myths about population densities and road maintenance,
has about a third of our population and their population density is much lower, yet its rates and charges are a whopping $829 less than ours are. You would expect that
a tiny region like Cook Shire with only 4,445 residents, or only 15% of our population, would be the most expensive of this group. Yet their bill is slightly lower than ours is. So
much for the Council’s theory that rates are always higher in lower population density regions. In fact, apart from Cook Shire, an extreme case with very
low population, all the other NQ councils analysed and charted have annual rates and charges that are $421 to $1168 a year lower than ours are. The Council leaflet
land
Government’s
Statisticians Office.
suggests the Cassowary Coast region has more roads, and especially unsealed roads, that are far more expensive to maintain than these other regions do. Is this true?
nor claim Region Total KMs Roads % Unsealed KMs of Roads Maintained per 1000 Residents rate levels cannot be Mareeba 2,307km 72% 103km changed; they can, Tablelands 1,855km 58% 73km by nibbling a litHinchinbrook 688km 37% 64km tle off each year. Cassowary Coast 1,188km 43% 40km The next council point to the low average The $1.5m spent suing res- Then look at this Coun- this why “Organisational will need our level of rates to be on rate increases in the last idents and the associated cil’s substantial expansion Support” has jumped from its radar because it is eco- four years but nearly all waste of executive time of the media/public re- $2.04 to $5.26 for every nomic ‘lead in our saddle councils, apart from a few over the past few years lations department, now dollar of our general rates? exceptions (where they was/is unproductive and costing ratepayers around These three unnecessary bags’ for the region. People looking to move demerged), did the same unnecessary; enough has $400,000 pa. The previ- spends alone; legal adveninto the area are often in that period. And as been said and written about ous Council functioned tures, excessive executives with just a single person in and a bloated media dealarmed when they see the CCIN will point out in a that. rates bills, and for pension- forthcoming article on this This Council changed its media. We, at CCIN, see partment add up to a posers and single parents in Council’s transparency re- organization structure and a constant stream of me- sible $0.8m pa in savings particular it is nearly im- cord, their use of averages created an executive team dia releases from Council available, without cutting often covers up what is re- of eight reporting to the informing us of important any services. Given every possible to move here. CEO. There were only four events like ‘a cat on the $400,000 is 1% of general And how do small busi- ally going on. Target building roof being rates revenue that’s a ponesses compete with oth- Consider Council’s me- previously. er regions with such high dia release regarding the CCRC added an ‘Exec- saved.’ While information tential 2% rate reduction. 2017/18 budget where it utive Manager’, though distribution needs have That’s only nibbling away rates? In this regard CCIN’s data boasted that the year’s most mid-sized councils undoubtedly increased, do at the rates gap, but with analysis here has con- rate rise of 1.65% was the do executive support work ratepayers really need to be 15,700 rateable properties, centrated on residential “lowest since amalgama- for their CEO via their paying for this type of triv- that’s still an average savdepartment. ia to be distributed? ing of over $50 per annual rates and properties. A tion.” What Council omit- governance ted to mention was this avThat’s doubling up; CCRC We also regularly hear rates notice. preliminary examination of commercial rates, how- erage hid a 5.2% increase now has both an Executive councillors moaning about Not a fortune but a handy ever, also shows the gap in residential rates in the Manager/Deputy CEO plus how their achievements start. between CCRC and other dollar, offset by a 19.2% Governance Co-ordinator/ are unrecognised. Does CCIN welcomes comcouncils is even worse for fall for the primary produc- Manager and both are ap- it surprise ratepayers that ments and feedback on this parently on the Executive this Council appears, at article via letters to the edthese payers than for resi- tion category. There are a few glaring Team. this pre-election moment, itor. If you would like the dential ratepayers. Could this Council have examples where CCRC An extra executive costs to be frantically spending full database, feel free to done more? They will could save dollars without Council in the region of ratepayers’ funds telling contact CCIN. impacting services. $200,000pa all up. us how good they are. Is