Mornington
Morni ngton
27 January
What a catch
2015
> Page 3
Your guide to what’s on this weekend for peninsula families
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Summer time views CRUISE ship passengers disembarking at Mornington on Tuesday 24 February might find the Esplanade between Mt Martha and Safety Beach has views to rival some better known places in the Mediterranean. Last week’s mild weather made for an enviable stopover for those aboard this yacht as snorkellers, fishers and sun lovers accessed the pristine waters from the rocks. ‘Traders getting set to welcome ship’s passengers’, Page 4 Picture: Keith Platt
Plea to shire: lower rates David Harrison david@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is under pressure to cut its rates as the state government promises to force councils to justify any increases above the rate of inflation. Councils will be required to send their budgets to the Essential Services Commission for permission to raise rates above inflation under Labor’s new policy. The shire’s 2015-16 budget is well
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under way. Officers are assembling the data on which our rates and charges will be struck – under the experienced financial eye of new shire CEO Carl Cowie. For the first time in perhaps a decade, those who put their views annually to the shire on what the budget should achieve have a discernible spring in their step, expecting their suggestions to be taken more seriously than in the recent past. Shire dismissal of community budget submissions has festered. In one
recent year officers had finished the final budget draft before the deadline for submissions expired, deeply angering many residents who found they had toiled for no purpose on their contributions. This year’s budget process is the first this millennium to be overseen by a new chief executive. The shire is again encouraging ordinary ratepayers to have an input, including at a meeting on Wednesday 11 February. First topic in most submissions is, inevitably, rates. The shire’s own policy
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has for years been rises of no more than local government’s version of CPI plus 2 per cent, but it almost never adheres to this figure. Notoriously, the shire has for years used the municipal charge, now standing at $180 a property flat charge, as a “phantom” rise. Last year a move to lift it by a further $10 was defeated. Perhaps as notoriously, the shire has regularly omitted the charge when announcing the “rate” rise, understating the figure by up to 2 per cent. Last year’s rate-in-the-dollar rise
was 5.9 per cent (omitting the municipal charge), 18 per cent higher than the shire’s own forecast of 5 per cent. Mornington Peninsula Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association is preparing its arguments that rates have risen unsustainably. “The shire’s rate increases over the decade show little concern for those in the low socio-economic bracket who are least able to pay in these difficult economic times,” MPRRA president Dr Alan Nelsen said. Continued Page 8