A Wyndham councillor has warned that residents could be slugged with rate rises of up to 10 per cent if the council’s debt is raised to a record $55 million.
At a public meeting on Monday night, Heather Marcus was one of only two councillors to vote against the draft budget that suggests borrowing another $15 million to help fund the capital works program, bringing the total amount borrowed to $55.06 million.
“We have never borrowed this amount of money ever before and this really concerns me,” Cr Marcus said. “I don’t want to put our people into a situation where, going down the track two to three years, we will have to put our rates up by 10 per cent to pay all these borrowings. We may need to borrow more each year. I’m sorry, but I’m not putting my ratepayers through this”.
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But Wyndham corporate services director Steve Lambert said the council had secured a seven-year fixed interest rate for its $55 million loan, meaning a rate increase of 10 per cent was not likely.
Cr Marcus reiterated concerns raised by Cr Gautam Gupta, who said he did not see why rates should be raised by an average of 5.5 per cent when the CPI increase was only 2.75 per cent.
Cr Marie Brittan said the council could not afford to raise rates by any less than 5.5 per cent, and she did not think the suggested increases in charges were too high.
“I think that once you own a house you know that there are ongoing costs,” she said. “We have a hardship policy to support the people who are in genuine hardship.
“If we increased our rates by only CPI, as this council did for many years, we’d be getting further and further behind with your capital works.”
Cr Intaj Khan supported Cr Marcus by voting against the draft budget.
Wyndham residents have until June 10 to make submissions.
For more information, visit wyndham.vic.gov.au.
