Council rates soar by $34

14 July 2001

By Andrew Gavin and Emily Osborne

Adelaide councils have raised their residential rates by an average $34 this year.

Council figures show the average residential rate has risen from $638 to $672 - 5 per cent higher than last year.

The Local Government Association attributed the rise to increased demand for community services and maintenance of roads, footpaths and buildings.

"The most significant message coming out of communities . . . is that they want more government services and not less," Local Government Association executive director John Comrie said.

"With reductions in state services, people are saying enough is enough and we want councils to do more and most councils have responded in that manner."

According to council figures, average residential rates have risen $95 since 1998-99, from $577 to $672.

Average total rates - which includes homes, businesses and factories - have risen from $790 last financial year to $837 this year.

The value of homes, which partly determines how much each residential ratepayer is charged, have risen sharply over the past three years.

In the Tea Tree Gully Council area, average values have risen from $118,418 in 1999-2000 to $132,295 this financial year and in the Burnside Council area values lifted from $213,489 to $250,949. Mr Comrie said "big ticket" items that cost councils the most money included waste management services, running libraries, maintaining parks and gardens, and upgrading roads, footpaths and buildings.

"Much of the public infrastructure we have in place is ageing and unless we spend more money upgrading it or replacing it there's going to be serious problems," he said.

"The consequences of not maintaining it is shown, whether it's in electricity outages, flooding or roads and bridges collapsing."

A recent LGA report shows councils need to spend $105 million a year more on maintaining roads, footpaths and buildings.

The report says councils currently invest $55 million on the renewal of these assets, but they need to spend $160 million annually over the next 20 years.

SA Federation of Residents and Ratepayers Association vice-president Joan Gaunt said councils needed a better method of funding than rates.

"We are going to have to come away from the quaint old fashioned idea of charging people so much according to the amount of property they've got," she said.

"It is simply not working and it hasn't been working for 10 to 15 years, and councils have been pushed into a situation where they are going to have to do something."

Reproduced from The (Adelaide) Advertiser, 14 July 2001.