Special Rate Variation

Update 23 June 2023

Council has approved a Special Rate Variation and the Budget for 2023/2 financial year. From 1 July 2023 general rates will increase by 6.35%.

The decision will see ordinary minimum residential and farmland rates rise by $22.85 to $1,166.65 for the 2023/24 financial year, while ordinary minimum business rates will rise by $22.15, to $1,282.45 for the year.

Combining the minimum residential rate increase with the other typical annual charges of water, sewerage and waste, will see a rise of $104.25 for the year. This will take the total minimum residential bill to $2,844.55 for the 2023/24 financial year – representing a 3.81% increase.

Ratepayers are encouraged to assess the impact of the SRV on their respective properties by using the General Rate calculator.

Anyone significantly affected by the rate increase is urged to reach out to Council at their earliest opportunity to discuss possible hardship assistance.

Read the full media release here.

Update 15 June 2023

Today the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has announced its decisions on 17 NSW council applications for special variations to increase their general income by more than the rate peg. Tweed Shire Council has been approved to increase the General Rate by 6.35% over 1 year.

The next step following IPART’s decisions on the rate peg and the special variation is for Council to decide how to set rates in the upcoming June Council Meeting.

Read the full media release from IPART here.

Update 27 May 2002

Proposed Special Rate Variation 

You are invited to review and provide your feedback on a proposed Special Rate Variation (SRV) that is required to raise additional funds to meet known mandatory ongoing costs.

The Tweed community are being asked for their opinion on 2 options:

1. Support the proposed Special Rate Variation to meet known additional costs
2. Not support the Special Rate Variation and reduce services instead
   
   

OPTION 1: Support the Special Rate Variation

A Special Rate Variation seeks to maintain existing service levels and fund the unavoidable additional costs described below. Council would increase rates by an additional 2.35% above the rate peg increase of 4%, raising the $1,567,954 needed for the known additional costs. Any additional unforeseen costs may require a further service level review.

What will the Special Rate Variation fund?Council will incur new additional costs that are outside of Councils control and are crucial to the delivery of Council services. In addition, the NSW Government has taken away Council’s ability to charge the Environmental Enforcement Levy, reducing Council’s annual income by $288,954.

To maintain our current levels of service, we need to raise more income to fund the additional costs of these mandatory items:

• Improve Cyber Security to protect your data – $268,000
  This is required to protect Council’s network and digital information to comply with the Essential 8 mitigation strategies as recommended by the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
  
  
• Make it easier and safer to do business with Council by upgrading core IT Business Systems – $500,000
  Council is facing increased information technology costs as we must retire our on-premises corporate systems and move to a cloud hosted software solution.

• Ensure people and property are protected despite increased Insurance Premiums - $151,000
  Insurance premiums on Property, Public Liability and others insurance coverage are estimated to increase.

The following additional item that the SRV will fund is required, but is not mandatory:

• Reduce Development Application processing times – $360,000
  Council needs additional funds to increase staff resources to help reduce the long DA processing times caused by a range of complexities and resource challenges associated with the NSW planning system.

If Council decides to proceed with a Special Rate Variation increase, the new rates and charges will be adopted at the Council meeting in June 2023.

OPTION 2: Reduce services and not apply a Special Rate Variation

If a Special Rate Variation is not supported, rates will still increase by the 4% rate peg, however this will be insufficient to meet the additional costs outlined above.

Council will still need to find a way to fund the mandatory additional costs and the only way to do that and maintain a balanced budget is to make cuts to existing services and reduce current service levels.

The full list of proposed service cuts required to fund the unavoidable additional costs is available here. Proposed cuts include:

Reduced road maintenance services including pothole repair Close Kingscliff Library Reduced hours at Tweed Regional Aquatic Centers Closure of the Growers Markets Reduced support for community events Basic funding only for Cycleways, Footpaths and Bridges programs Reduced Parks maintenance

Calculate your rates

	The General Rate calculator is based on the 2022 land valuation you should have recently received from the NSW Valuer General. The calculator shows the effect of the latest land valuation from the NSW Valuer General, the rate peg approved by IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) for Tweed Shire, and the proposed Special Rate Variation (SRV).

Share your feedback

We want to work together to plan for the future, so the Tweed grows and evolves in a sustainable way.

Would you accept a small increase in your rates to try to maintain current service levels?

OR

Would you prefer to make cuts to services the Council provides to the community and reduce the current service levels?

Have your say by 4pm Friday 26 May 2023.

Online: Complete this online survey
Mail: General Manager, Tweed Shire Council, PO Box 816, Murwillumbah NSW 2484
In person: Attend a Community Conversation (15 May & 16 May)
Email: tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au

Your feedback is important and will inform decisions that will help us plan for the future.