FREE
Your independent community newspaper - Ph: 4325 7369
June 21, 2016
Dobell Spend-O-Meter
Issue 94
Wyong rates to increase by 6.9 per cent he former Wyong Council determined at one of its last meetings to take the final year of its special rate variation (SRV) out of its draft 2016-17 operational plan, but the new Central Coast Council has decided to continue to charge the SRV in 2016-17.
T
Promise
Candidates
Road upgrades (general) Improving your local parks and environment program funding Blackspot funding EDSAAC Grandstand Better Beach access for the disabled Wyong Hospital Upgrade M1 Productivity Package CCTV cameras Hospital equipment Kamira funding Central Coast Community Legal Centre Berkeley Vale Oval Tuggerah Lakes Estuary Bateau Bay PCYC Roads rescue Package Footpaths Totals:
Emma McBride $5million
Karen McNamara $12.3million
$1,060,000
$3million $491,200 $2million
$2million $1.5million $195million* $205,000 $100,000 $2.2million $300,000 (over three years) $75,000 $3million $50,000 up to $60million $2.5million $269,610,000
$21,171,200
* Already in Federal Budget from 2013
oth major parties, Liberal and Labor, have been making promises to spend money on key projects for Dobell throughout the election campaign.
B
To make it easier for voters to see the totals pledged and what they are for, Wyong Regional Chronicle has put together a list of pledges made by both major parties since the election was called. The Dobell Spend
-O-Meter will also give readers a list of what to look out for in the future to keep track of how many promises have been kept by the winning party. Our major election coverage, including candidate profiles,
general information about the Dobell electorate, the location of polling booths as well as the latest and final information from all the parties as they relate to Dobell begins on page 12.
In essence, this decision by the new council means that Wyong rates will increase by up to 6.9 per cent instead of 3 per cent in 2016-17. In June 2013, the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) determined council’s application for a special rate variation. The IPART determination at the time said: “We have determined that Wyong Council may increase its general income … resulting in a cumulative increase of 30.59 per cent over the next four years, or 17.6 per cent above the rate peg. “These annual increases incorporate the rate peg to which the council would otherwise be entitled,” the determination said. At the time, that rate peg was projected to sit around 3 per cent, in line with official inflation forecasts. Based on IPART’s projections, that annual increase in general income for the 2016-17 financial year would be over $5 million. However, at the April 27 ordinary meeting
of Wyong Council, councillors determined that they wished to give a dividend back to the community by not collecting the SRV in its final year. That would have resulted in rates in the former Wyong local government area increasing by the IPART rate peg of 3 per cent only, and not by the SRV. According to the minutes from the April 27 meeting of Wyong Council, councillors moved to remove the final year of the special rate variation of 6.9 per cent from its draft strategic plan and replace it with a rate increase capped at 3 per cent. During the debate over whether to collect the SRV or not, some councillors argued that the decision should have been sent to the Office of Local Government to ensure a decision not to collect the SRV would be in line with the merger guidelines that decisions of the former Wyong Council were subject to in the period before the merger. According to the minutes, instead of
seeking advice from the Office of Local Government, councillors noted that they considered the merger guidelines and formed the view they did not apply and stated its reasons why. However, since the formation of the Central Coast Council and dissolution of the former Wyong council, the decision regarding the special rate variation has been reversed. In a media conference following the Central Coast Council’s June 8 ordinary meeting, CEO Mr Rob Noble said: “That was an expression of intent by the former Wyong Council. “It hadn’t actually been adopted by virtue of the fact the former Wyong Council never did adopt its operational plan for 2016-17,” he said. “So the new operational plan incorporates the proposed original SRV. “It will be on public exhibition (but not advertised in this newspaper) and we will wait for the public’s feedback on that,” he said.
Office: 120c Erina Street, Gosford Phone: 4325 7369 Fax: 4321 0940 Mail: PO Box 1056, Gosford 2250 E-mail: editorial@centralcoastnews.net Website: www.centralcoastnews.net
Continued P3