Bega Valley Ratepayers Petition against IPART approving the BVSC a 43% Special Rates Variation

1. Council's underlying structural deficits are not being addressed but treated as the status quo with no known plan to budget effectively, instead taking the easier route of applying for an increased 43% SRV. We the Ratepayers, will carry a $10m deficit in the BVSCs general fund by the 30 June 2023.(1)
2. Meanwhile the Mayor and Councillors have since awarded themselves a pay rise. (2)
i) That Council resolve the annual fee payable to Councillors, paid monthly in arrears, from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 to be $21,730.
ii) That Council resolve the annual fee payable to the Mayor, paid monthly in arrears, from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 to be $47,420.
IN FAVOUR: Crs Fitzpatrick, Nadin, Seckold, Allen, Porter, O'Neil and Wright.

3. Bega Valley Residential Land Values have increased by 62.1%. (3) which would allow BVS Council to add a 43% SRV increase to our Residential Rates based on Land Values over 2 years if approved by IPART. This would increase payments from ratepayers to fund potentially more financial mismanagement by Council. There are 18,870 residential homes (4) occupying only 20% of the geographical land mass in the Bega Valley. The rest is primarily National Parks, State Forests and Crown Lands. We have a low median weekly income of $1501 for families and $1200 for households compared with $2185 and $1829 respectively for the rest of NSW. (5)

4. Council should only be funding core services instead of an extensive range outside our revenue capacity such as operating the Merimbula Airport (7), upgrades to Council’s Offices (8 & 9) at an estimated cost of $8,775.000.00, and the South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA). (10) These overheads to not meet our demographic composition of 1) a median age of 52 with a larger senior population of 55-59 yrs (7.9%), 60-64 yrs (9.7%), 65-69 yrs (9.3%) and 70-74 yrs at 8% respectively and 2) the median weekly income (5 & 6). The 2021 Census reports that 50.9% of the Bega Valley population reported themselves as being in the labour force. This demonstrates that half the Bega Valley population are highly dependent on forms of government support and that those who do work, earn low salaries, well below the median weekly income for NSW.

5. The large proportion of pre-retirement and retired ratepayers (55 to 74 years = 35%), many of whom will be on fixed incomes cannot afford to pay for these proposed rate increases. Pressure on the Ratepayer to pay for non-essential services is an ongoing issue, which we the Ratepayers of the Bega Valley are fed up with.

References
(1) https://www.merimbulanewsweekly.com.au/story/8097896/bega-valley-shire-srv-not-enough-to-cover-projected-104m-deficit-in-general-fund/
(2) http://begavalley.infocouncil.biz/Open/2023/05/OC_24052023_MIN_854_WEB.htm
(3) https://www.valuergeneral.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/231802/VGNSW_media_release_-_South_Coast.pdf
(4) https://profile.id.com.au/bega-valley/population
(5) https://www.valuergeneral.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/231802/VGNSW_media_release_-_South_Coast.pdf
(6) https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/LGA10550
(7) https://begavalley.nsw.gov.au/services/about-the-airport
(8) https://begavalley.nsw.gov.au/files/Attachment-zingel-place-administration-building-report-sibling-architecture.pdf?v=1623592588
(9) https://begavalley.nsw.gov.au/files/Concept-Design-Estimate.pdf?v=1622037648
(10) https://begavalley.nsw.gov.au/council/decision-made-on-gallery-upgrade-project