Rate rise not as high as expected

Rate rise not as high as expected

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Source - Depositphotos.

Residential rates in the City of Canning will rise by 2.5 per cent less than the original forecast.

According to the City of Canning mayor Paul Ng, the minimum rate is the lowest amount of rates that any property in the city will pay and Canning’s minimum rate of $852 remains one of the lowest in Perth.

This is a one dollar per week increase and applies to 9,354 residential properties and proportionately to another 2,195 who were previously just above the minimum rate.

However, if the city adopted the 3.5 per cent rate increase proposed in July, they would have had one of the highest rates in the metropolitan area.

The 2019-2020 annual budget released last week showed that approximately $0.72 weekly increase would be going to the average residential property in Canning.

Mr Ng said the city’s balanced budget would help achieve the city’s strategic community plan and remain aligned with its long-term financial plan.

In response to the high rate rise hitting the most vulnerable, Mr Ng says that it is more likely that people experiencing financial difficulty are families in average single dwelling properties within the city.

“The city has already tried to minimise the impact of any required rate increases on its ratepayers, any ratepayer experiencing difficulty should contact the city to enter into a payment arrangement appropriate to their situation,” he said.

The total budget for the upcoming financial year is $146 million which is vastly higher than forecast.

Most of the money will be going to community facilities ($24M), urban forests, parks and sporting reserves ($16M), transport infrastructure ($16M) and waste and recycling ($15.9M).