Victoria’s lowest rates

Every Council candidate and councillor talks about ‘low rates’ or reducing rates but few ever have any impact (or even genuine intention) on achieving either.

Since my election to Council in 2000, I have been keenly focused on keeping rates as low as possible by running a tight, lean and efficient Council budget.  This has been a principal I have applied every week and to every decision I have made as a Monash councillor.

The annual rates bill is one of the largest single outlays which a person has to pay each year.

I believe that as well as providing quality services, there is nothing more important that a council must do than keep the rates as low as possible to help ease the forever increasing cost of living pressures facing ratepayers.

Providing that local infrastructure is being maintained at an appropriate standard and services are being provided effectively, it is much better for money to be left in your pocket rather than collected by Council through increased rates.

Rates may not have reduced during my time as a councillor, but I am absolutely confident that had I not been there, Monash rates would be significantly higher today and they would not be the lowest in the state.

Having the lowest rates in Victoria is no accident and is not easy to maintain.  It requires a constant focus on restraint, scrutiny of new spending and regular reviews of existing operations.

I have a clear record of consistently working to keep costs down, prioritise spending to the most effective areas and improving value for money.

Below is a list of initiatives I have personally led over the course of the 2012-16 Council term to reduce the impact of rates:

1. Elimination of Monash Council’s $15 million of debt which had accumulated since Monash Council’s formation in the mid 1990s following the Kennett Government’s amalgamations of local councils.  Monash is now debt free for the first time in its history;
2. Introduction of a differential rate on commercial and industrial ratepayers to recover more rates from business ratepayers in favour of residential ratepayers;
3. Introduction of a Council funded pensioner rate rebate of $50.00;
4. Development of a Financial Hardship Policy to provide assistance to ratepayers in financial hardship with the payment of their rates;
5. Allowing pensioners to defer their rates interest free and other ratepayers experiencing financial hardship to defer with only a 2.5% interest rate;
6. Inserted a Key Performance Indicator in the CEO’s contract for her to achieve $500K+ of efficiency and productivity savings on an annual basis;
7. Reduced the number of effective full time employees at Council over the course of this Council term and capped this number so it no longer automatically grows from year to year;
8. Withdrew Council from providing a vacation care program as this was being subsidised by ratepayers to the tune of more than $200K per year (and when there were many other similarly priced options available locally for a similar fee);
9. Rolled out energy efficient street lighting across Monash which will save an estimated $14.1 million in energy costs through to 2031 and cut carbon emissions by 18%;
10. Exited Council’s operations of two nursing homes which were costing Council more than $1,000,000 to run every year and servicing only 165 residents (and where other care was available locally for similar or lower fees);
11. Eliminated the ratepayer subsidy for the operation of Council’s Family Day Care program by working with staff, carers and parents to achieve a new fee regime to run the service on a cost neutral basis;
12. Instigated a state-wide campaign for rate reform urging the state government to give councils the flexibility to smooth fluctuations in rates from year to year due to property revaluations;
13. Secured in-principle support for Council to introduce a separate waste charge to provide relief to ratepayers who do not receive a waste collection service from Council; and
14. Set a target of a 40% reduction in Council’s annual $1 million plus spend on legal services.