It might feel like groundhog day, but yes, tonight will again see Lismore Council debate and vote on whether Lismore should get a Special Rates variation (SRV).

The rate increase of nearly 25% over four years has been on the cards of Council meeting agendas for a while now. 

The first time it was due to be voted on (three weeks ago), the vote was adjourned until the next week. 

At last week’s extraordinary Council meeting, the SRV was voted in – with three councillors being absent (Crs Bennett, Lloyd and Guise) and only three councillors voting against it (Crs Casson, Moorhouse and Battista).

Then the next day, a recission motion was lodged by three councillors (Crs Casson, Bennett and Battista) – effectively putting a stop to the SRV being sent to Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) to make a decision on whether to accept Council’s decision.

Now, tonight, Council could discuss it again.

The revenue gained from the SRV has been mostly earmarked to fix the roads in the Council area.

If the SRV does not go ahead tonight, Council will need to find $54 million out of its budget to fund the roads.

The big question is where will the money come from? 

Cr Nancy Casson believes the money needs to come from looking at the budget and making appropriate cuts.

“I voted against the SRV because as a business owner, I knows that to cut costs you need to look internally,” she said.

“I don’t have rate payers to ask for the money.

“I think there’s a better way of doing things in Council.

“Council staff are loathe to admit that more can be done with less - and accept that reality, look at processes and change them.

“I questioned Council staff about the 80 staff jobs that were cut – I’d like to know more - because there’s a lot of new faces in Council I don’t know.

“I was also surprised at briefing information for tonight’s meeting that shows we are $4 million in the red. All year I’ve been told in our quarterly statements that we were in the black and all of a sudden we are in the red.

“I think Council staff have been giving council lords incorrect information.

“We need to look at every dollar - even after we found we had a $6.2 million deficit, we still gave out $15,000 worth of community grants and I said why?

“The answer was because we’ve done that for years. 

“The definition of madness is to keep doing same thing and expect different results. 

“My biggest concern is that if the SRV goes ahead and the roads are fixed, I don’t see the rates changing in five years – it will be with us forever.

Cr Casson also believes some of the past roadworks had used funds that shouldn’t have been used because “we keep screwing up constantly”.

“The Carrington Street roads works cost more money than it should have and when I put in a councillor request to ask why, I was told that the extra $71,000 was in the contingency plan,” she said.

“That level of thinking was appalling.

“We need to change the thinking and mentality of staff and don’t put our hand out to ratepayers. 

“We need to look at every process and make adjustments.”

“Why does Council think its ok to have the Lismore Shopping Square pay one third of the rates that the Lismore CBD businesses do?

“What about staff pay rates and accrual of annual leave?”

Councillor Casson also mentioned the elephant in the room that no one has been talking about.

“We were told Council staff are afraid of administrators coming in if the SRV isn’t approved,” she said.

Tonight, the decision will be made.