Battle of the Rates continues in the Clarence Valley

A lively North v South debate on rates and reporting is underway in the letters column of The Daily Examiner last week.

A Lower Clarence resident makes his feelings known on 12 May 2009:

RECENT letters and articles in this paper have expressed dissatisfaction with the inequity in property rates being charged across the Clarence Valley.
In the interests of fair debate, I wish to correct some inaccurate information which has been put forward.
Firstly, please be assured that Grafton residents have not been subsidising Angourie, Yamba or Wooloweyah residents as has been claimed. This is clear from the CVC Management Plan figures quoted below.
Secondly, in Graham Orams' article (Grafton rate burden eases evaluation, DEX, May 8, p3), he falsely claimed that Grafton and Junction Hill ratepayers' rates will 'remain the highest in the valley'.
Neither the figures for 2008/9 nor the proposed figures for 2009/10 support this statement.
The average figures for residential properties in 2008/09 were:
Residential A (Coastal Village including Angourie) $955.82, Residential D (Yamba,
Wooloweyah) $931.58, Residential E (Grafton Junction Hill) $878.35'
Under the proposed rates structure for 2009/10 the figures are: Residential A $992.23' Residential
D $960.48, Residential E $879.14.
I agree that rates equity is a very important issue and needs debate but based on accurate
information, please.
The key issue is the vast difference in land values across the Clarence Valley.
Not only do we have the inequity of similar properties in different parts of the valley paying
significantly different amounts to council for the administration of services, infrastructure,
development, planning and management, etc., but we even have similar properties in the
same street paying significantly different amounts, simply because of proximity to the beach or river.
Rates equity will never be achieved while rates are based on land values, a hangover from times when land value was an indication of its productivity and so the ability of the owner to pay.
This is no longer the case.
The whole basis upon which rates are determined needs to be re-examined if equity is to be achieved.
RON LOVERIDGE,
Angourie.

The Daily Examiner journalist replies with this salvo from the bunker on 13 May 2009:























The fight so far goes to Lower Clarence residents on points, because nowhere in his May 8 article did the journalist mention "dollar for dollar" values. Instead he couched his argument in terms of average residential rates, which of course meant that Grafton City came out with much lower average rates than many coastal towns and villages.