13 May 2013

Rate Rises;Value for Money?

Interesting to read the article on rate rises in this mornings paper. Unley's proposed rate rise is 4.5% and not the 5.1% as quoted (who knows where they get that number from). Hopefully, they got the others right and there is some validity in the article. Daniel Wills titles his article 'Rate Relief', with some of the lowest rate rises in recent years and nearly all lower than last year. To some extent this reflects lower inflation and reduced rate of increase in Council's costs. David O'Loughlin, the incoming President of the Local Government Association describes most of the pressure for increases coming from increased expectations from the community about the level of service they expect. This would certainly be true in Unley as people expect well run Libraries, Community Centres, sports facilities and swimming pool along with well kept parks, gardens, footpaths and roads. All this and new infrastructure to enable flood protection, water recycling, solar powered street light,etc.
In the league table provided Unley seems to stack up well. If you want to answer the Adelaide Now question; Are you getting value for money from your council? then go to adelaidenow.com.au or let me know by adding your comments. The Advertiser's full story can be found at; http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/adelaide-councils-rates-increase-to-be-lowest-in-years/story-e6frea83-1226640613673

1 comment:

  1. The answer is, they used last years numbers! No wonder the numbers were wrong. While many of the comments were pretty harsh on the website, those they published today were pretty well balanced. I'm not sure about Federal money reducing spending as Council must always put in 50%, this means projects are brought forward to get the money and this may save rate rises in the future but add to costs in the short term.

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