The partial rate rise allowed for Lithgow will result in $343,362 in works budgeted for the 2019-2020 financial year being left without funding.
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IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) announced on Monday it would allow a nine per cent increase, not the 11.7 per cent applied for by Lithgow City Council.
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Lithgow City Council flagged that the partial approval "would require council to consider a future Special Rate Variation (SRV) application, as well as to find efficiencies and reduce services to allocate sufficient funding to asset renewal and maintenance over the years ahead".
Lithgow City Council will consider the implementation of the rate rise at its meeting on May 27. The increase would see the average residential rate by $29 in 2019-20, the average business rates by $165, average farmland rates by $55 and average mining rates would increase by $6099.
The increase would come into effect on July 1, 2019.
The nine per cent increase was allowed, IPART stated, because it was the figure most often quoted and understood in the 242 submissions the body received in the lead-up to making their decision, rather than the 11.7 per cent council applied for.
In a statement released by council, it stated "as the 2019/20 rate peg of 2.7 per cent was only announced by IPART on September 11, 2018, Council could only specify the proposed cumulative increase of 11.7 per cent in its community consultations from that date".
"Earlier communications referred to the proposed increase as being nine per cent plus rate peg," it stated.
"The approved SRV (Special Rate Variation) represents an increase of 1.53 per cent on last year's rates (including the expiring SRV of 4.77 per cent) plus the 2.7 per cent standard rate peg increase."
Council pledged to monitor hardships ratepayers faced following the increase and stated it had not increased water or sewer charges.
"Council proposes to reduce waste charges by decreasing the special waste charge for kerbside recyclables from $28 to $22 per service for 2019-20," the council statement read.
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