By Nikki Todd
TWEED residents will be asked to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for an environment levy to help preserve the natural amenities of the shire, under a proposal to be put before council tonight.
Veteran Tweed Shire Councillor Warren Polglase, a former mayor of the shire, will put forward a notice of motion at tonight’s (15/8/13) council meeting seeking to investigate the possibility of introducing a 1% levy on all ratepayers.
Under the councillor’s plans, the levy – which would cost each ratepayer approximately $13 extra per year – would be used solely to restore and preserve valuable environmental assets, including bush regeneration and riverbank restoration.
“The levy would be used for environmental issues only,’’ Cr Polglase said.“Everybody talks about how wonderful the Tweed is to live because of the environment and how we should protect it but unless you’ve got the funds you can never do it.
“This would let us look at revegetation in certain areas of the shire, riverbank stabilisation, we may look at additional fencing for habitat protection, all those sort of issues.’’
Cr Polglase said a levy was one of the few options available to council to increase its budget bottom line, with rates rises pegged at a maximum of 3.4% (in 2013/14) by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) which governs rates in NSW.
“To get above the rate pegging, we’ve got to apply to IPART,’’ Cr Polglase said.
“And when you apply to IPART, there’s only certain areas of rate income you can apply for and an environmental levy is one of those areas that they look at seriously.’’
Cr Polglase said the 3.4% rate increase allowed under the current regime was quickly swallowed up by expenses including wage and superannuation increase, leaving little room to increase spending in infrastructure and maintenance.
“Council has got to look at new ways of creating income which benefits the whole community,’’ he said.
He said a 1% levy would generate about $500,000 extra for the shire to add to its current rates income of about $53 million.
If supported by his fellow councillors, council staff would be asked to prepare a report to be brought back to council by November, to be followed by extensive community consultation before an application could be made to IPART.
