Casey approves 6.8pc rate rise

By Rebecca Fraser
CASEY Council has voted for a rate rise of 6.8 per cent.
The rate is 1.1 per cent lower than the originally proposed rise of 7.9 per cent.
This means that an average Casey resident would pay an additional $55.70 per year, or $1.07 per week more than last year.
The move came after a majority of councillors voted to defer four projects the expansion of the Brentwood Park Community Centre, the Kambrya Basketball Stadium and the Brunt Street bus parking bay in Cranbourne, until the 200607 midyear budget review.
The implementation of a new structure in the community services division was also put on hold until next January.
Three of 11 councillors, Paul Richardson, Lorraine Wreford and Steve Beardon, voted against the 6.8 per cent recommendation and said the reduction had not gone far enough.
Casey mayor Kevin Bradford, who put forward the lower recommendation, said the new rate was a fairly good result for residents.
Cr Bradford said the council was faced with strong demand for infrastructure and services and the decision to defer the four projects and the subsequent rate reduction had been financially responsible.
“It proves that councillors do listen to their residents.”
Casey deputy mayor Rob Wilson said the 29 resident submissions forwarded to Council regarding the budget were a small percentage of the municipality’s 225,000 strong population.
Cr Wilson said the reality was that if residents wanted new services and infrastructure they had to be paid for.
He said if council did not address the city’s infrastructure needs now, in three to five years time there would be a huge cost blow out and rates would have to be made much higher.
Cr Lorraine Wreford said the late addition of $3.2 million worth of “pet” projects at budget weekend had contributed to the jump in rates and councillors should not have been allowed to “jump the queue” and add these items at the last minute.
She said she believed rates would have been much lower had it not been for the late inclusions.