That was the overwhelming response back to mayor Peta Pinson who lost a bid at the August ordinary council meeting to keep rates on hold until council reduces its costs and delivers more efficiently.

Her move was countered by deputy mayor Lisa Intemann who successfully moved a 20-point recommendation, supported by Crs Rob Turner, Geoff Hawkins and Peter Alley, in an attempt to explain why the rate peg is applied and how council's cash reserves are managed.

The mayor wanted it noted that as of 30 June 2021, council has $342,612,871 invested.

Cr Intemann said while that is true, the mayor must provide the community the facts on the matter of council finances and not "half a story".

Each year, council applies the rate peg percentage determined by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).

In adopting the fees and charges and revenue policy for 2021-2022, the ordinary rate was resolved to increase council's general rating income by 2.0 per cent.

The rate peg is designed to assist council as a service provider to meet increasing costs associated with project delivery and operational commitments including staff wage increases.

IPART is reviewing the current system for setting council rates revenue to include population growth.

IPART has determined that the amount councils currently receive in rates is usually not enough to cover the increased costs associated with population growth.

Council CEO Dr Clare Allen acknowledged Port Macquarie-Hastings is a region of high population growth and the current rate revenue will not compensate for the service delivery required for that growth.

Dr Allen said a large portion of the reserves put aside by council have already been earmarked for future high priority projects including Ocean Drive. There is also a $70 million flood repair bill that must be factored in and council will be "playing catch up" for many years as a result.

Council noted that forgoing IPART's rate peg increase for the next three years would have a cumulative negative loss in revenue of $34.4 million on council's long term financial plan over 10 years.

Cr Pinson said holding rates and applying no further increases would be seen as a "gesture of goodwill" for a community that has suffered three years of hardship through bushfires, floods, drought and a pandemic.

"We are in unprecedented times. And we are in a crisis as a region, a crisis as a state and a crisis as a country. To gouge our ratepayers any further is not the mark of true leadership," Cr Pinson said.

Crs Alley, Intemann, Turner and Hawkins issued a word of warning.

Cr Alley said now is not the time for council to be trimming the bottom line while its community is recovering. It has to continue to lead the way and deliver quality service and projects.

"We are a service delivery organisation. We should be measuring things in terms of the quality of service to our community. We should be increasing our service to the community," Cr Alley said.

"This is not the time to be reducing services. We need jobs in this local area, we need our council to be functional and as a consequence, we need to be measuring not in terms of costs, but in terms of the value delivered to our community."

Cr Intemann said if freezing rates is an issue to debate between some candidates as a part of the December 4 election, residents should be armed with all the facts.

"It is vitally important, in my opinion, the community gets the full story on something as important as this," the deputy mayor said.

"Whilst it seems delightful to hear there is a proposal for a rate reduction, we also must inform the community of the cost that comes associated with that. There is rarely anything such as a free lunch, and if there is a freeze on rates and the rate peg amount, there will be a cumulative impact on what council can deliver.

"It is an essential part of council's role to the community that services are delivered by us.

"Honesty is an extremely important part of telling the full story to the community so they are aware of the full consequences. The full story has not been provided here."

Cr Hawkins said it was important to remember council came out of administration in 2012 in a "very poor and very difficult" financial position. He said council has now halved its debt and is in a strong financial position to deliver on high priority projects.

He asked the mayor if she had discussions with the state member Leslie Williams about freezing rates given many of the works council delivers come with state and federal dollar for dollar funding partnerships.

Cr Hawkins said councillors who support a rates freeze need to remember their responsibilities under the Local Government Act and the guiding principals for sound financial management.

The mayor alleged Mrs Williams "refuses" her entry to her office, and berated Cr Hawkins for attempting to disparage her reputation.

"Policy decisions should be made with consideration of the financial effects on future generations," Cr Hawkins said.

He said a rate freeze would have a negative impact on higher levels of government co-investing with council on priority projects.

"We all hear the pain in the community. We all know people who are hurting badly," he said.

He said council offers hardship provisions for the community.

"But destroying our revenue base would be absolutely calamitous."

The mayor said the debate was all "fluff and scare tactics".

"There are plenty of other councils in NSW that have far less opportunity available to them and they still deliver to their community," she said.

"We have in excess of $342 million, there are resolutions of council that will open up those funds and start delivering. It is 10 years of not delivering because we've been building the coffers.

"We must deliver for our community, our roads are failing. The money we have in the bank is losing value every day it sits there. The cost of road reconstruction and repair is increasing. The cost of doing business is increasing.

"Every day we don't deliver to our community we are losing the value of the dollar."

Cr Turner said a freeze on rates only applies to people who pay rates. He said council's hardship provisions provide far greater assistance to ratepayers who need help now.

He said council's responsibility is to the quadruple bottom line - governance, the environment, the social fabric of the community and finances.

Cr Intemann said the facts cannot be ignored.

"When we take out the actual commitments council has made in terms of those reserves we end up with $3 million of discretionary funds. That is not sufficient to justify foregoing $1.1 million this year and $13 million over 10 years while still facing increasing costs and then expect the organisation to fulfill the project delivery needs of this community," Cr Intemann said.

"Council has been delivering $65-80 million in capital works each year. In order to meet our needs we need to deliver at least $100 million in capital works a year.

"We will never deliver that if we cut off our nose to spite our face by relinquishing the rate peg which is designed specifically to cover the increasing costs in the coming year.

"We must show vision for the community. The pipedreams put forward sometimes are astounding. These points bring us back to earth and give the facts around our finances."

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