By NATALIE KOTSIOS
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TWO Greater Dandenong councillors will challenge the council’s proposed rate rise tonight, saying it could still get down even further.
Councillors are set to vote on a 4.98 per cent rate rise – already more than 0.5 per cent lower than anticipated – at the special draft budget meeting.
The Weekly reported last week the push by councillors Peter Brown and Maria Sampey to reduce a proposed 5.5 per cent rate rise to 4.5 per cent.
At that time, mayor Youhorn Chea the council was locked to a “moderate” 5-5.5 per cent increase to ease pressure on future rate rises.
But in the past week, that figure was reduced to 4.98, thanks to $200,000 in cuts to the council’s fleet management and the public art program, and $210,000 from contingent grant funding.
To catch all the latest news from tonight’s meeting, log onto greaterdandenongweekly.com.au tomorrow, or Follow the Greater Dandenong Weekly on Twitter @DandenongWeekly.
Corporate service director Mick Jaensch said for the average residential property, this equated to a 4.15 per cent increase, including 1 per cent for the impending carbon tax.
But Cr Sampey said it could be possible to get it down lower. She said $430,000 had been set aside for traffic lights at the Princes Highway-Robinson Street intersection, even though the council had not yet spoken to the state government about helping fund the $2 million project.
“If that’s not going to be spent, what is it set aside for? It’s ridiculous when so many people in our city are struggling,” Cr Sampey said.
“How much further could the rates go down if you take that money out? It might go down to 4.5 per cent, which would be a great relief to our residents.”
Cr Brown said he would support Cr Sampey in calling for the funding to be removed, and that it was VicRoads’ responsibility to fund the project if it was necessary.
Cr Roz Blades said the proposed rates were “a good start” but that she would “like to see it a bit lower if we could do it”. “We still need to recognise the amount of hardship in the community.”
But Cr Jim Memeti said the proposed rise was “the right thing to do”, providing some relief to residents while still enabling the council to deliver all its services.
“If it did go lower, people would see it as a sweetener leading up to the [council] elections … and then you’ll have to find the money in the next budget.”
One of the biggest projects in this year’s draft budget will be $38.3 million for the new municipal building and library in Dandenong.
