The rate increase confirmed for residents at last night's Newcastle City Council meeting may not be as bad as it seems.
What was initially said to be a 8 per cent rate rise, will actually be more like 7.2 per cent because council say they haven't increased the waste domestic surcharge which pays for weekly garbage collection for residents.
Lord Mayor of Newcastle Nuatali Nelmes says it really shouldn't come as a surprise to ratepayers as it had already been approved by iPart.
"The amounts of rates on people's rates notice won't seem as much because at the city of Newcastle we're keeping our costs and our overheads low in regards to our domestic waste service that people obviously rely on. We're keeping that charge fixed s we did last year as well, so we haven't increased our domestic waste service charge."The increase will work out to be around $100 per annum per household over five years.
"This is the same decision that council made back in 2014 and that was approved by iPart. We are doing the special rate variation over five years at the City of Newcastle as is neighbouring councils. This isn't a new decision, this is a decision that was made by iPart back several years go and is part of our normal budget," said Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.
Newcastle Council also confirmed at last night's meeting that they will be putting money towards the revamp of Newcastle Art Gallery after a plea for funds from the state government was knocked back.
Some funds will likely come from proceeds of the 2012 special rate variation.
"The most significant investment in arts and culture in this city year on, year out, is Newcastle City Council and we'll be continuing to press the state government to pay their fair share of an art gallery redevelopment considering the hundred of millions of dollars they're putting into cultural projects in Sydney," said Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.
