Esperance Shire is aiming for a modest 4.5 per cent rates revenue increase for the coming financial year, after Council passed the budget at a special meeting on Tuesday.
While actual rate in the dollar increase is very slight for town properties (less than 0.4 of a cent), property values have risen since last year (median house price up 11 per cent) so most property owners will feel the price hike.
Acting Shire president Jennifer Obourne said it had been a difficult process.
No one likes to raise rates because people are doing it tough.
“There’s not a thing we haven’t looked at to try and balance service provision without raising rates too much, but we had to try and keep the same service everyone’s used to.
“We have the largest rural road network in the entire state, and so we spend around $23 million every single year on maintaining and upgrading our roads.”
Miss Obourne mentioned several “once in a generation” projects starting this financial year which the Shire could not afford to delay.
This included the new waste transfer facility at Myrup which had to be ready before Shire lost its licence to operate Wylie Bay tip, and the James Street Cultural Hub.
“We got the funding from the Federal Government of $15 million,” she said.
“So it was ‘take that $15 million now and get the project started’ or probably never ever get the project off the ground.
“So a lot of big infrastructure projects on top of a massive road network has just made this a really difficult and challenging budget for us to work through, and councillors have been united in trying to get the best value for money for the community.”
Miss Obourne also mentioned a pay increase for staff that came with the new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
“We had in our long-term financial plan that we would allocate a 12 per cent increase over three years,” she said.
“What we’ve negotiated with them, because we’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, is that they actually get five per cent in this first year and then 3.5 per cent in years 2 and 3.
“So that way they still end up with 12 per cent over the three years, however they get a bigger boost now while it’s really needed.”
The rate for rural properties is slightly less at 0.3159 cents in the dollar, down from last year’s 0.3586.
All councillors present passed the budget seven votes to nil.
