MELVILLE council’s 2016/17 budget was adopted on Tuesday night, confirming an average rate increase of 2.45 per cent.
This equates to an average of $51 per year on top of ratepayers’ bills.
A large chunk of this year’s budget will go towards sprucing up LeisureFit Melville.
An amendment to the budget was also passed, which says relatives of councillors and staff can no longer win the early-bird ratepayer incentives.
by TRILOKESH CHANMUGAM
All residents and ratepayers should be up in arms. A 2.45% rate increase is almost double current WA CPI and is much higher than even what the State government has factored into its budget. Local Governments should be forced by the State Government to tighten their belts in the same way the rest of the WA economy has. They should go back and look for cost reductions to reduce this amount rather than come up with a lot of excuses that are hard to substantiate with what little information they make transparent to the public.