The council voted, seven to two, on Tuesday night, to apply to IPART (the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) for a special rate variation, which would see rates rise by 11.7 per cent in 2019-2020. 

In a report to the meeting, council’s CFIO (Chief Finance and Information Officer) Ross Gurney stated that the proposed special rate variation was “an important step to help maintain and manage our current assets to ensure that we deliver services in line with community expectations and are financially sustainable into the future”. 

During the debate, councillors showed they were well aware that any decision to alter rates upward would not be popular. 

Deputy mayor, Cr Wayne McAndrew and Cr Steve Ring both spoke about council’s moves to introduce efficiencies. Cr Ring spoke directly to the public gallery as he spoke about the importance of meeting the NSW Government’s Fit For the Future benchmarks.

“What council had previously done was say, “this is our budget, we’ll add one per cent or two per cent”… In 2017-2018 Council introduced zero budgeting. That meant every program had to be justified, every cost had to be justified...” he said. 

“To reduce the operating deficit, council has enacted a raft of measures to reduce expenditure by $2.5 million.” 

The application to IPART will state that the rate increase will be used to maintain existing services; enhance financial sustainability; for infrastructure maintenance; for renewal and to reduce infrastructure backlogs. 

Support was not unanimous among councillors. Cr Cassandra Coleman said, while she would vote for the application to go ahead, that did not guarantee her support to implement it going forward. 

Councillors Stephen Lesslie and Maree Statham voted against the move. 

“It is a difficult decision, but it’s not a difficult decision for me because I’ve listened to the people for three months,” Cr Statham said. 

“The farming fraternity is outraged – they have come through… the worst drought of the century.”