Central Coast Council will hold a special meeting to give itself permission to apply for a rate rise, even though the Council hasn’t decided yet if it wants one.
Council is hedging its bets by allowing staff to start the process to apply for a special rate variation above the usual rate rise as set by Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
The meeting will be held on November 26, at 1pm, in the Wyong chambers and the public forum will be included.
Administrator, Dick Persson, said that he had a meeting with IPART last week and confirmed that the window was still open for Council to apply, but that window would soon close.
He said Council would begin the process even though a decision had not been made and no figure for any possible rate increase had been set.
Persson said that the decision would be made after he handed down his report into Council’s financial situation (see separate story).
He said at the beginning of his tenure that he hoped to have that report ready in 30 days and that it would be a “plain English” report explaining how Council got itself into its present situation.
It would also give options for the future.
Those options would include a rate rise, asset sales and other efficiencies, and any options would be publicly canvassed before any final decisions were made.
Residents wishing to address the meeting will need to register with the council by 4 pm Wednesday via their online meeting registration process. The link provided here.
Merilyn Vale
Related article: Administrator flags a possible rate rise