Big challenge

Councillors face a significant decision when they are sworn into office again

Excitement is building among successful council candidates ahead of their swearing in. It’s a moment that they have dreamt about for years and a time to be proud after fighting tough election battles.

But once the pomp and circumstance of the swearing in and official photos are over, the political reality will hit hard as they are faced with the tough decisions of governing a city.

Chief among them will be the budget process.

The new councillors will have to get into gear quickly, with Mayor Tom Tate set to bring down the budget in mid-June.

Mr Tate maintains he will keep rates at or below CPI.

At the time of a cost-of-living crisis, ratepayers are crying out for any relief.

The reality is that prices only keep going up.

And that’s been made harder after a decade of glacial wage growth and the increasingly wide chasm between the haves and the have-nots.

Throw in the inflationary pressure brought about from the massive cash splashes of the Covid era and it’s clear how tough times have been.

The Gold Coast unexpectedly benefited during the pandemic from a supercharged property sector, which has only slightly slowed in the past two years.

Now, partially as a result of the high sales and Covid-inspired population boom, property values have increased 25 per cent in the past two years, with the median residential land value now topping $610,000.

Soaring investor demand, high net migration primarily from other states and significant infrastructure development are being blamed for the rise, which will come into effect on June 30.

The figures, determined by the state valuer general, apply to 152,000 properties across the city that were notified on Tuesday and were the first since October 2021.

The new total value of this land is $157,866,105,956.

Property values can have a significant impact on how council calculates its rates bills.

Surely there will be a lot of nervous owners fearing the size of their charges in the next financial year.

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