Poor ratepayers hit again

GLENORCHY CITY COUNCIL

OMG. Firstly we poor ratepayers of Glenorchy City Council have to financially suffer a 12.5 per cent rate increase to pay for the Board of Inquiry and dubious financial dealings by previous staff and aldermen. Now it has been announced by the council that it plans to wipe a $12,000 debt owed by a sporting promoter. Apparently this promoter was paid twice for his services. Where are the checks and balances in the council’s finance unit?

It should not have been left up to the council’s bank to retrieve the funds, it should not have happened in the first place. It is not a small amount; surely care should have been taken when such a sum is being paid. For Aldermen Johnston to say this will have no impact on the council budget is ludicrous, it is a large amount out of the budget which will never be retrieved. Another financial drain on ratepayers’ pockets.

Alan Leitch Austins Ferry

Slugged once more

GLENORCHY ratepayers slugged yet again. Council promoted a basketball event held at the Derwent Entertainment Centre to the tune of $12,000. A later council report indicated that the event promoter had accidentally been paid twice and that council has been unable to secure a refund. Council asks ratepayers to understand that like any other business, that on occasions debt cannot be recovered. I personally would not consider the double payment as a debt, more a cock-up by someone in the financial section, and that individual should be held to account.

John Wilson Magra

It’s moments like these

WE have finally found some smart councillor or council employee at Glenorchy City Council. When going into the council office to pay an account I noticed bowls of lollies at each of the pay stations and someone behind me who was in to pay an instalment off her bulging rates account was heard to say “yeah that would be right, lollies being purchased by the ratepayers to sweeten the ordeal of paying these outrageous rate accounts”. Me with my quick wit and my humorous mind said “Nah, they are Minties that bind your gums and teeth together so you can’t yell abuse to whoever will listen to you as the powersthat-be won’t.” M.B. Wardlaw Rosetta

Millions in costs

What would lord mayors know about running a business? Tasmania has lord mayors by the bucket load and most if not all have never managed or owned anything similar to the scale of most local governments — some as large and financially diverse as Hobart, Launceston and Glenorchy. Incredibly the wage costs to these councils is around 40 per cent of their total income. In private enterprise it would be impossible to maintain and run a business where wage costs exceeded 25 per cent of turnover. Why do business owners and residents pay such ridiculous rates? The answer, look at uncontrolled expenditure, wages, councillor remunerations and idle assets that in many cases cost in excess of a million dollars a year to maintain.

Mike Smith Rosetta

That’s the way it is

LETTERS from angry residents were scathing of rate rises due to mismanagement by previous councillors. I feel for you but the big picture is that as taxpayers to our federal government, Australians have been dudded by mismanagement of our tax dollars by not only the current lot but many previous governments. As with the Glenorchy City Council what recourse does any of us have? Unfortunately none.

Jim Dent Hobart

Dysfunctional

THE receipt of our Glenorchy rates notice with its additional cost of nearly $400 a year emphasises the dysfunctional activities of the previous few years. It must be remembered that for several years Glenorchy ratepayers have been paying an additional 4 per cent rate hike instituted by the 2013 council. Surely the current situation with a further hike of 12.5 per cent attests to gross mismanagement and contempt shown by both the local government and State Minister for Local Government, who should have intervened much earlier than he did in the chaotic shambles, evident to any ratepayer who attended a council meeting. It is hard to believe the cost to the ratepayers can be justified. Perhaps the Glenorchy Ratepayers Association should consider a class action against those who created the original issues and the Local Government Association and the Minister for Local Government, who had the ultimate responsibility to clear the mess up.

Kim Akerman and Val Hawkes Moonah