Some of the residents I’ve met with share with me how painful it is to pay their rates invoices.
I understand what they’re saying, it’s painful for me too!
Many of them are on fixed incomes and every dollar counts. They may have assets such as their family home, but those funds are locked away for now and their day-to-day cash-flow is low.
It hurts to pay thousands of dollars every year to the council, and sometimes it feels like we get very little in return.
You may have seen this diagram before, but it’s a wonderful visual way of seeing what our rates are spent on.
One thing that stands out to me is that 40% of our rates goes on water:
- 13.5% Providing fresh water to our homes
- 15.4% Taking waste water away from our homes
- 11.1% Diverting stormwater away from our homes
Click the image to enlarge
