Lismore councillors last night voted to bring in a Special Rates Variation (SRV) which will see a property rates rise of almost 25% over four years.

The decision to bring in the SRV was made two weeks ago, but after a recission motion against it was lodged by councillors, the decision was put on hold. 

After almost two hours of discussion, last night’s meeting saw five councillors vote to continue with the introduction of the SRV (Crs Ekins, Marks, Bird, Cook and Smith) and four councillors vote to stop the SRV (Crs Battista, Casson, Moorhouse and Lloyd).

Read more: Mayor offers options for ratepayers in hardship

The SRV will bring extra revenue to Council for the roads budget and economic development opportunities such as reinvigorating the CBD.

The Council will now send the decision to the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a rate increase over 4 years, starting with 7.5% in the first year, 9.4% in the second year, 3.9% in the third and 3.2% in the fourth year.

The decision included clauses which would see Council develop a way to provide greater accountability and transparency in the management of the extra revenue and ongoing road works.

This included developing a way to track and regularly report expenditure and progress against the SRV, R2R and General Funds road programs.

Another clause requested that Council’s general manager look at alternative resourcing models, “over and above council’s road team to complete the additional road works so they can be completed within a time frame that is acceptable to the community”. 

The discussion about the SRV has generated passionate discussion in council meetings, or social media and on the street.

The debate in Council chambers last night also gave rise to passionate speeches from councillors. 

Cr Lloyd gave an empassioned speech around making sure governance was followed with regard to the SRV lodgement.

Cr Battista gave his ideas of where to get some of the $5.4 million needed to fix the roads from if the SRV didn’t go through, which included looking at savings internally.

Cr Casson gave an emotional speech about the State Government shifting more costs every year onto local councils – effectively putting councils in financial stress.

“Instead of punishing ratepayers, why don’t we campaign against the State Government to stop cost shifting and fund councils adequately,” she said.

Mayor Smith said Council has been working with the state body LGNSW to fight cost shifting, along with all the other local councils who have been under financial stress.

Councillor Battista questioned Council staff about why only 27% of last year’s road works were completed.

Mayor Smith responded saying that was the year following the flood and most staff were taken out for three or four months as a result of it.

Cr Lloyd suggested the community has lost confidence in the Council's ability to manage the money to be used for the roads. 

Now, it’s a matter of waiting to see if IPART accepts Council’s decision to introduce the SRV.

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