Tate: I’ll keep rates discount
Mayor seeks fourth term as critics take aim at campaign promise
Mayor Tom Tate has launched his 2024 re-election campaign with a promise to retain the pay-on-time rates discount.
Mr Tate, who faces eight opponents at the March 16 Gold Coast local government poll and hopes to serve a record fourth term in office, has put cost-of-living measures as a priority policy.
But the policy announcement, before the first major mayoral breakfast on Tuesday, immediately attracted critics including council governance chair William Owen-Jones who maintains those in need of a rate cut are penalised. Mr Tate and the other candidates – Eddy Sarroff, Virginia Freebody, Lavinia Rampino, Gary Pead, Rosie Foster, Danielle Dunsmore, Jennifer Horsburgh and Brett Lambert — were invited to the Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Currumbin RSL. Only Ms Freebody, Ms Dunsmore, Mr Sarroff and Ms Rampino were at the breakfast when it started, along with all four candidates standing in the two southern divisions. The Mayor was at an Experience Gold Coast board meeting.
“I am fully aware of current cost-of-living pressures for families and small businesses,” Mr Tate told the Bulletin.
“Today, I commit to retaining the 10 per cent pay-on-time discount for all rateable properties. I am confident this is the most generous rate discount of any council in Australia. Under my watch, it’s staying.” The Mayor has faced opposition from some councillors wanting to scrap the discount.
“These discussions have been raised in our closed session budget discussions so the community won’t be aware which councillors hold that view. Today, I call on all sitting councillors and candidates to declare their intention before the election,” he said.
“Make your view known so people know where you stand. Otherwise, it is a 10 per cent rate increase by stealth.”
Mayor Tate said the discount was an average of $200 for a typical owner-occupier home. Around 85 per cent of rate payers access the pay-on-time discount. But Councillor OwenJones, on his Facebook page, immediately took the Mayor to task, saying the City marks up the general rates every year by 10 per cent.
“We then offer a 10 per cent discount. If you do not mark up the rates in the first place it will never ever be a tax by stealth. The “generous discount” is 100 per cent all smoke and mirrors,” he wrote.
“We do not offer it on any of the other charges on your rates bill, we do not offer it on your water notices.
“In my case, it works out to about $128 a year on the $3700 in rates and water charges I pay every year – 85 per cent of property owners pay on time, slightly less than the water rates payments.
“Because the general rates are marked up, before being discounted it’s actually the 15 per cent of Gold Coasters who can least afford to pay their rates bills on time that get penalised – they lose the “discount” and pay penalty interest.”
Mr Tate said councllors spent months debating the budget to keep rates low and “wouldn’t simply then jack them up by 10 per cent”.