Extraordinary Council Meeting 24 May 2021
Explore Councils by state
An Extraordinary Council Meeting was held last night in Cooma to determine the preferred option for rates harmonisation across the Snowy Monaro region.
Nine councillors including the Mayor were in attendance, along with Council’s executive leadership team and CEO.
A great deal of work has been done on the modelling process and councillors have had numerous briefings on this to determine the best path ahead.
The “rate path freeze” that was announced at the time of the merger, and subsequently extended by one year due to COVID-19, comes to an end on 30 June 2021. Council must have a rates model that meets legislative requirements by then to enable the 2021-2022 budget and operational plan to be finalised.
New legislation, passed Thursday 13 May, provides some options such as allowing variations in farmland rates across different locations. These changes do not preclude the need to take the first significant step now.
Councils must assess the proposed cost of delivering services to the different localities across the region and determine whether the rate structures aligns reasonably with the cost of providing services to the various landowners based on the rating categories and potential sub categories.
Two motions were presented with cases for and against option 2 which was lost, followed by a foreshadowed motion for option 1C which was also lost.
In the debate last night, Councillors talked about business generation, fair outcomes, impacts on towns and farmland, and equitable results for the community.
As the motions were lost, Mayor Peter Beer put through a mayoral minute to confirm another Extraordinary Council meeting to be held this week, on Wednesday 26 May, where a final decision will be made.
State government legislation requires merged councils to harmonise rates across their regions. The deadline for a decision on what rate structure to place on public exhibition is Thursday 27 May 2021 to allow the Revenue Policy and Operational Plan for next year to be adopted.
The community is reminded that any changes to the rates do not change the overall rate revenue collected by council, just the mix of how this is obtained across the categories of business, farmland and residential for this region in particular.
Extraordinary meeting: 5pm Wednesday 26 May 2021