Friday 22 February 2008

Pyne advocates new rates policy

Cairns Regional Council candidate for Division 3, Rob Pyne, says that the new council should introduce a system of ‘optional residential rates capping’


“The sad case of the residents of Kewarra Beach paying up to $10, 500 in general rates on their family home could have been avoided if the rates capping scheme that has operated in Townsville for some twenty years was available to Cairns home owners," says Robert Pyne.

He says that Cairns is a developing city, and with development occurring, inevitably land values fluctuate. That results in general rate changes residents find hard to understand.

"Ask the people of Trinity Beach – 133 per cent increase in one year. What does that do to a family budget? Which suburb is going to be next? Yours? What about the prices they are paying for property in Port Douglas?" he says.

The power to deal with these circumstances is provided for in the Local Government Act, says Pyne.

"Why is Tony Mooney so popular in Townsville? He has protected his community from these ravages for twenty years by having a residential rates capping scheme in place. The question that should be asked of the Byrne-lead Council. If it’s good enough for the people of Townsville why is it not good enough for the people of Cairns?" says Robert Pyne.

He says the scheme would:-
  • Require Council to nominate a cap rate each year - say 5%, a rate that any increase in a residential property’s general rate would not exceed in that year - irrespective of the property value increase.
  • Be optional at the application of those residents who wanted to participate in the scheme.
  • Apply only to a residential category property he/she owns that is their principal place of residence.
  • Ratepayers would continue to benefit fully in any decrease in general rate.

Robert Pyne believes residential rate capping is so important to the people of Cairns and the challenge to any candidate at the upcoming election should be to declare their position on optional residential rate capping.

"It is time equity and family budget certainty were introduced to Council’s rates policy," he says.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Factman repeats ...

SO, ROBERT PYNE, please describe youself.

If you wanna be cool, ring now. that's cool.. that's cool.

KitchenSlut said...

Rate capping results in unfair anomalies and discriminates adversely against renters. What is not well known is that Cairns is the only large city council in Qld which has rejected the system of averaging land valuations to smooth the impact of fluctuations.

Averaging was introduced years ago by the Qld Gov for calculating land tax. All major councils which have rate capping systems also use the averaged valuation before they apply any capping.

Simply, your land value is averaged over 3 years valuations and any sharp movement in one valuation will result in more gradual rate changes. What matters for rates is relative valuations betweeen suburbs in the council area and this system mitigates the impact of timing anomalies in property values as different suburbs rise of fall at different times relative to others.

At the time of community rate submissions a few years ago council staff claimed that averaging 3 numbers, which can easily be done in seconds on an excel spreadsheet, was too hard despite this being applied by all other comparable councils. At the rates submission presentations the averaging proposal appeared to receive a positive response from councillors (KB absent)and the CEO, but was later rejected in the final outcome.

It was also revealed at the presentations that coucil had provided adverse false and misleading information on the averaging system to councillors and the public.

Much more could be said on valuation and rates policy (and the Qld Gov deserves most of the criticism)but blog comments is probably not the place for nuanced complexity .........

Anonymous said...

What?????????? Factman What are you on about? please try to be more clear with your points so the rest of us dont have to be high to get where your coming from!

Anonymous said...

Factman (Terry James) has clearly lost the plot

Anonymous said...

Robert, please move to division 4 so that I can vote for you.

This is one of the fairest policies I've seen proposed for a long time, one for locals, not investors.

Townsville needs to be commended for their adoption of this policy.

Anonymous said...

Factman, (who is NOT Terry James), would like to apologise for the nonsensical post made on this thread by myself on Friday night..

I'm not sure if it was the Hardy's Insignia Red of the Linderman's Coonawarra Limestone Ridge that was responsible ...

Anonymous said...

No way Brad M, Rob Pyne isn't allowed to move to Div 4 coz we, in Div 3, won't let him.
The only hope you have Brad M, is if you can convince him to run for Mayor next time. Only then will we be happy to share Rob with everyone.

Anonymous said...

20/20 cricket, Super14 Rugby, Davis Cup, Elton John, Cowboys! Oh great, now we can add rate capping to the list of things that Townsville has ..that Cairns doesn't. Liveable city, I think not!

Anonymous said...

Regarding my over indulgence in alcohol on Friday night I wish to make the following statement:

My name is factman.
I admit I have a problem.

I wish to acknowledge that I will no longer be a drunken, opinionated, Kevin Byrne supporter.

Everything I have ever said on this blog is untrue and was only fuelled by excessive alcohol consumption.

I now have seen the light. Kevin Byrne is in fact a megalomaniac bully with no regard for the people of Cairns or the new region. I sincerely hope that Val Schier whips his ass on the 15th March.

I can now truly claim to be Factman as I can now speak the truth.

Anonymous said...

Please Factman, don't change.
Your cutting, incisive, analytical and in depth exposure of that bunch of hypocrites called Cairns 1st is needed on this blog.

Without your posts this blog would be about as one sided as the State Government's favoritism for Townsville.

Please continue to support the only viable team, Kevin Bryne and Unity.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon,

I can't, I've seen the light and there is no turning back to the darkness. Praise be to Val Schier, for she will be our saviour.

Anonymous said...

Now we know what is wrong with "factman". His memory losses and irrationalism are caused by early onset korsakoff's syndrome.
(Just keep on drinking that wine, "factman". It's real good for you.)

Anonymous said...

Could the real Factman please stand up?

Anonymous said...

I am Factman. I have changed. I understand now that Kevin and his Unity Team are the losers. Val Schier and her Alliance is the only way forward for the new Cairns Region.

Anonymous said...

good on you Factman. You've finally jumped over to Vals winning team. Whilst your in such a good mood, can you guarante that you are Terry James?

Anonymous said...

CAIRNS 2020 - From airport to Edmonton and North to Port Douglas, the city of Cairns is a densely packed mass of high-rise concrete towers. No naturally vegetated hills surround Cairns, as they too, are crammed with towering buildings. Once noted for its central swamp, the city's council drained it years ago to provide one of the biggest inner city unit blocks. The central Cairns business district has that distinctive "Asian" look as Chinese entrepreneurs have flooded the city. Chinese money is said to be behind Australia's greatest towers, lined up in an impressive row, each boasting individual helicopter pads on its rooftop, in downtown Abbott Street.
A huge multi-span bridge, engineered in China and backed by Chinese financiers links the business district with what was once the aboriginal reserve of Yarrabah. Today Yarrabah or "Byrneside" as the suburb is known, boasts the citys dress circle suburb. You need to be a multi-millionaire to live here, and residents are all screened in this gated community which boasts its own airport as well as marina.
Private security guards and privately hired water "police" do daily patrols around "Byrneside".
The inner city suburbs of what was Parramatta Park, Bungalow and Westcourt are modern versions of "harlem". Old, crumbling blocks of units erected in the early millenium house an over population of blue collar workers and welfare recipients.
There is a sense of teeming humanity in the streets of Cairns.
Old time locals reminisce how once it was "relaxed". Today, the central business district is as packed with scurrying, hurrying people as downtown Tokyo.
TO BE CONTINUED......

Anonymous said...

I see your view anonymous. They may call it "Byrneside" .. But, Mr Byrne wont be living there unfortunately. Mainly because he is far from being a Millionaire.
He aparrantly doesnt have a lot of money. The only way he could move over there is if Hedley, CEC or Glencorp gave him a home for nothing.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see a candidate actually put forward a decent policy. If we can get a few people like Rob over the line and working for us we might just have a city to match Townsville's livability down the track.