Jun 04 2023
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Progressive Port Phillip
Submission in response to the City of Port Phillip’s Draft Council Plan & Budget 23/24
Restricting the rate rise to 2.8 per cent amounts to intergenerational theft of community resources needed to secure our city’s future.
The 23/24 draft Budget papers state that the impact of adopting a rate rise of 2.8 percent for Port Phillip, rather than the statewide rate cap of 3.5 per cent, is some $900,000.
What’s at Stake?
The resulting reduction in the available pool going forward will have long term compounding effects resulting in reductions in planned investments in the following Council Reserves:
- $2.5 million in the Strategic Property Reserve
- $2 million in the Asset Renewal Reserve
- $2 million in the Municipal Growth Reserve
Local government is not a corporation with shareholders.
Our Council continuously gives back to residents through its services and infrastructure, physical, social and cultural. Its mission and purpose are funded by many: residential and commercial property owners through their rates; tenants through their rents; state and federal governments through grants; car users through parking charges and users of services through fees and there are even more stakeholders.
It is fundamentally wrong to privilege the most advantaged rate payers with the greatest reduction in their contribution to the long-term future of municipal services and community in the way Councillors propose. Even more so, it is wrong to expect a future generation or a future Council to pick up the tab for this largesse.
The proposed Budget does little for fraying community assets, the housing crisis, the climate emergency, users of Council services and nearly half of the households in Port Phillip: renters.
Progressive Port Phillip opposes the proposed 2.8 per cent rise in rates, supporting instead a rise that goes to the rate cap of 3.5 per cent.
Read in full our submission in response to Council’s Draft Plan & Budget:
https://news.progressiveportphillip.com/PPPsubmission-CoPPDraftCouncilPlanBudget2023.pdf
Have YOUR say
As part of council’s Community engagement on the Council Plan and Budget process, all community submissions – such as this one – will be collated and presented to Council for consideration at the 7 June 2023 Council Meeting.
If you have not made a submission in writing, you can take the opportunity to speak at the 7 June 2023 Council Meeting.
We encourage you to do so.
Online registrations to speak close at 4pm on the day of the meeting. Alternatively, if you are attending the meeting in person, manual registration forms will be provided upon entry to the Town Hall.
You can find further information about the community engagement process at Council Plan and Budget | Have Your Say Port Phillip.