Mount Isa Mayor Joyce McCulloch has strongly defended her council’s decision to increase rates as anger continues in the community.
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Last week former mayor Ron McCullough sent a letter to the editor saying the rises were excessive while defeated mayoral candidate David Fletcher has also been vocal on the matter on his “Locals United” Facebook page.
However Mayor McCulloch said the rate rises were necessary as this council was faced with a very difficult budget thanks to decisions made by previous councils.
“In the last term there were two out of the four years with zero rate increase,” Cr McCulloch said.
“When council delivers a budget we are required by legislation to show a 10-year forecast. Last year there were two councillors, and I was one of them, that spoke against (the budget) because the forecast was for a 10% increase this year so coming into this council I knew this was going to be the hardest job we would face.”
Cr McCulloch said once elected, the new council asked administrators to go back and cut costs as low as possible to give the lowest increase possible and they were now looking at projects to reduce energy and water costs.
“What the community needs to realise is that Mount Isa has significant assets that need maintenance,” she said.
What the community needs to realise is that Mount Isa has significant assets that need maintenance
- Mayor Joyce McCulloch
“We’ve had a lot of infrastructure built quickly over the last 12 years and this council is struggling not just with the upkeep of that new infrastructure but also renewing a lot of the old infrastructure already there so we’re essentially copping a double whammy.”
Cr McCulloch said comparing Mount Isa rates against other cities was not comparing apples with apples.
“We’ve got a very limited population for a lot of infrastructure and assets,” she said. Mayor McCulloch admitted she had seen negative comments on social media but her preference was for people to take their complaints direct to council to sort out “misunderstandings”.