Rate hike plans alarm resident

Rate bills are expected to arrive in Katherine letterboxes from today for the latest 7.5 per cent rise.

The resident, who does not want to be identified, has received a series of documents he claims to have obtained from council.

Some of the documents have now been seen by Katherine Times.

The chief document “Long Term Financial Plan 2019-2028” details the council’s ongoing efforts to raise money for a new rubbish tip.

According to recent information, more than $40 million may be needed to close the current waste management facility and re-open a new one.

Council says it has been forced to adopt a schedule of rate rises, believed to be the biggest in the Territory, to pay for the new tip.

For three years Katherine has had a succession of nine per cent rises followed by 7.5 per cent this year.

According to this latest document, council is projecting the rate rises necessary modeled on likely outcomes for the tip.

The “number one” scenario, proposing they would need to find the money within eight years, continues the recent trend of high rate rises.

It lists two more years at 7.5 per cent, followed by five years at 6.5 per cent increases in each year and then three years of five per cent rises.

The resident said he was stunned to learn of plans for hefty rate rises to continue.

“There is no account here for all the money we as individuals have lost in land value with this PFAS scandal,” he said.

“If you add them up, there’s something like 60 per cent rate rises over the next decade.

“A lot of people, including a few aldermen we hear, are still unhappy the mayor got a pay rise this year, it doesn’t seem we can afford it.”

Council must place recommended rate rises to ratepayers each year before voting on them.

Katherine Times supplied Katherine Town Council with copies of the two documents yesterday morning and has sought a response.