By LAURA WAKELY
CLUBS and hotels have hit back at Brimbank City Council’s plan to double their rates.
Earlier this month the council unveiled their draft 2012-2013 budget, which included a new gaming rate double that of other commercial properties.
The council has defended the charge as a way of deterring businesses from installing poker machines, which have already cost residents $97 million this year.
But Sunshine City Club President Brian Smart said the charge was “unfair”.
“We’re not very impressed,” Mr Smart said.
“They (council) seem to think that poker machines are a license to double tax you. It just never ends.”
The club is one of 12 venues that will be hit with the charge, while the Sunshine RSL, Green Gully Soccer Club and St Albans Sports Club are exempt.
The RSL is non-rateable under the Local Government Act and Green Gully and St Albans Sports Club are under non-rateable as they are leasing their premises.
Mr Smart said the club doesn’t use council services like waste collection, and that the pokies machines allowed them to hire more staff and fund sporting activities.
But he said the club wouldn’t make a submission against the budget, calling it a “waste of time”, as the club has already spent thousands of dollars fighting the council to have a heritage home in Talmage St demolished.
Deer Park Club general manager Anthony Trigger labelled the council’s plan a “naïve” tax that was not a solution to problem gambling.
“Clubs and hotels work very, very hard to address the issues we have with problem gambling, and for a council to come in and consult with venues who face this problem at the cold face, it’s disappointing,” Mr Trigger said.
“It’s disappointing that the council would contemplate making decisions like that.”
He said the club was not-for-profit and “community-based”, providing funding for local sports teams.
“At the end of the day it reduces what we’ve got to give back.”
