Rates to rise by $41

DANDENONG councillors endorsed a $41.11 average rate rise at their meeting on Monday night, despite fears about the impact on residents doing it tough.
Councillor Roz Blades was concerned about the 5.9 per cent increase that will apply to the average Greater Dandenong property – valued at $360,000 – in the 2013-14 budget.
A waste charge reduction brings the overall increase on the average rates notice to 4.17 per cent.
“I’m worried, considering the financial position of many residents,” she said.
But corporate services director Mick Jaensch said the council’s hardship policy included a number of ways to help ratepayers in need.
He said the council could defer rates, organise a payment plan, or even institute a $500 waver in some cases.
“We will work out payment arrangements to suit almost any ratepayer,” he said.
“It’s the way we can support our most needy that really do struggle.”
The council allocated $150,000 towards the hardship fund in 2012-13 and has used $76,000 to date.
“We still have quite a lot of capacity to assist those in need,” Mr Jaensch said.
City of Greater Dandenong received two submissions after releasing its draft budget for public comment last month, both expressing concerns about the rate rise and why it was higher than the consumer price index (CPI) increase.
“We certainly don’t buy many things that are in the CPI basket,” Mr Jaensch said.
Councillor Sean O’Reilly said he informally compared the rate rise with other councils at last week’s Australian Local Government Association conference.
“Our increase compares extremely favourably to other councils in the area,” he said.
“We’ve tried to minimise the impact on ratepayers and overall we’re doing a good job.”
Mr Jaensch said the cash collected would fund maintenance, services and projects across the municipality.
The most significant outlay in the budget is $16.217 million for the Municipal Building Project in Dandenong.