Community groups express concern for proposed 0.0 rate peg impacts

"I thought that sounds good," he said.

"We must be in a good financial position for that to be justified.

"But when I delved into the numbers and saw that fees were going to be increased or services decreased, I thought, what's going on here?"

In the February Port Macquarie-Hastings Council meeting, a motion was put forward to include a 0.0 per cent rate peg (a rate freeze) for the 2024-2025 financial year.

A Draft 2024-2025 Operational Plan has since been prepared and is on Public Exhibition on the council website.

In the Draft Operational Plan, in order to offset the impact of no rate increases, a number of measures to mitigate the cost have been listed including:

For community group leaders like Mr Poleweski and Bonny Hills Landcare president Ross Smith, the reduction of services and grants was a surprise.

Community grants from council have helped support the Progress Association's community events including the Bonny Hills Art Prize in particular the children's workshop

"The council have been fantastic the last couple of years," Mr Poleweski said.

"So when I was told and could read [that grants] would not be available for the whole financial year, I was a bit taken aback.

"I thought wow that is a huge decision that will impact a lot of community events happening over the next 12 months."

Mr Poleweski, who has 30 years of experience in the banking sector as well as 15 years as a retirement village manager, said he can't see the justification for the zero rate peg.

"I'm not sure if [councillors] understand the implications," he said.

"It sounds good on the surface but when you look at the fact sheets.... I mean [council] have basically been told we're not going to increase your rates but we've got a short fall of 2.7 million.

"It just seems a very strange approach to take."

Mr Smith voiced confusion to the decision as well.

"It doesn't make sense to me running a business... stopping at 0.0 per cent when in reality they could have gone as high as 4.6 per cent under legislation which a lot of other councils are doing as I understand," he said.

There's also concern for the maintenance of the local Rainbow Beach Reserve which is a popular site for community events, surfing and tourists.

"People have weddings here," Mr Smith said.

"It does need work this Rainbow Beach Reserve."

"We take so much pride- this is a beautiful area," Mr Poleweski said.

"If the park is not maintained or not improved, then tourists will just go somewhere else."

The pair also voiced concern for Community-Council Action Team initiatives for the reserve.

The 0.0 per cent rate peg proposal was approved by council to be applied to ordinary and special rates in the Draft Operational Plan back in the 2024 February council meeting.

Meetings in previous years had elected not to proceed with potential rate freezes.

Recently, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) NSW had set the core rate peg for the 2024-2025 financial year to increase by 4.6 per cent for the local LGA.

This was the maximum rate peg that Council could apply.

As stated in council documents, the adoption of a 4.6 rate peg would increase residential rates by around $60 per year and provided an additional $2.7 million in revenue for council.

Adopting a 0.0 per cent Rate Peg will result in council not receiving that revenue, mitigation strategies to be put in place and rate payers saving approximately $60 per year.

Four councillors have already voiced their concern of the impacts however councillors in support of the rate freeze said that "there will be minimal impacts to the council's long-term viability".

The Draft Operational Plan is currently on Public Exhibition for members of the public to have their say with a number of community pop-ups available across the LGA.

Mr Poleweski commended council staff for providing fact sheets on key inclusions including on the 0.0 per cent rate peg and encouraged others to have a closer look.

"I think the momentum is gaining now," he said.

"These fact sheets are very helpful and helped us understand the impact it was going to have if it goes through."

He encouraged others to share their thoughts with council while they can.

"I think if people even just read the fact sheets, get the overview of what appears to be happening and [what happens] if it goes through, they may want to say no," he said.

The public exhibition period closes at midnight on Monday May 20, 2024.