At last night's Lismore City Council meeting, councillors arrived expecting to vote on the proposed Special Rate Variation (SRV) - which will see a rise in rates for Lismore property owners.

The controversial SRV was scheduled on the meeting’s business paper to be the first item discussed, however Mayor Isaac Smith began the meeting saying that the vote by councillors was to be adjourned until next week – at a special Council meeting on Tuesday, November 19 at 6pm.

Mayor Smith said that because of the bushfire emergency - and because four councillors (Crs Battista, Bennett, Lloyd and Guise) were absent from the meeting - it would be inappropriate to have a vote on such an important issue until more councillors were present.

When Councillor Battista arrived at the meeting late, Cr Ekins asked the Mayor if postponing the vote was necessary because he had arrived and she believed that next week, there would still be two councillors absent.

Mayor Smith replied saying that only one Councillor had formally requested leave for that meeting and he expected the other councillors to be present. 

Councillors voted to adjourn the meeting after other Council business had been discussed and reconvene next week for the SRV vote.

A number of locals had come to the public access meeting to speak their minds about the proposed rate variation.

On hearing that the vote was to be postponed, two of them walked out of public access speaking time without addressing Council.

There will be no public access speaking time at next week's meeting,

Resident Keith Graham addressed the Council during public access saying “shame on you”.

“This is not the eastern suburbs or Byron Bay, we all shop at Kmart and 21% of residents here live below the poverty line and are doing it tough,” he said.

“Landlords can’t just push any rate increases onto residential tenants and farmers in droughts can’t get more for cattle, and pensioners can’t increase their benefits to pay for it.

“Lismore City Council already has the highest rates in Australia and is the second highest risk area in the whole of Australia.

“We are driving away investors and it will be another nail in the coffin for the whole Lismore area.

“We are already facing a population decline which is unheard of in our history.

“Investors will go to Ballina where they enjoy lower rates than here.”

Janine Wilson addressed Council asking councillors why the rate increase was even being considered when Lismore City Council had higher revenue than other councils, and less roads.

“We already pay more for roads per capita than people in other council areas,” she said.

“Where is the revenue to fix them? Other councils don’t go to their ratepayers and ask them for the money.”

A special rate variation (SRV) allows a council to increase its general rates income above the annual rate peg of 2.5%, as set by the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART). 

The SRV has been open for discussion through two rounds of community consultation over the last few months.

Read more: Lismore rate rise causes a stir in Council

The SRV options include sticking to the rate peg set by IPART asking for a staggered increase of 7.5, 9.4, 3.9 and 3.2% increases over four years, or an increase over two years of 17 % in the 2020/21 financial year and 6.9% the following year.

Lismore City Council has applied for the SRV because it is "unable to provide its current services without increased revenue" and will use any extra revenue raised “to rebuild more roads and undertake increased gravel road maintenance”.

Council also reported that additional funds will be used to improve the local economy by enhancing the CBD and riverbank areas and provide incentives for new businesses to open.