Document rates highly

THE City of Casey Community Rate Review Committee report is now a public document for all to see, except for private information that has been deleted.
It is available for perusal at council service centres.
My view is that the council will probably say thank you to the review committee and maintain the status quo because to bring in a variable rate based on capital improved valuation would take a strong and brave council.
The pity of it is that a variable rate, even without major adjustments from the present rate base, would provide future councils with room to manoeuvre in the event of sudden land value changes.
This review committee was representative of most sections in the municipality, except for vacant block owners, mostly developers.
Ironically, one of the points made that would assist the council if it wanted to levy a variable rate was to charge more for dormant vacant land owned by developers.
The review began when the Rural Landowners Association (RLA) said enough was enough after its members received high rate charges in comparison to the earning capacity of properties they had owned for years.
The problem in some rural areas is that people own land where the goal posts were moved.
The underlying value of many properties could not be realised because of heritage restrictions and limits on subdivision afforded to their neighbours over the hill.
Any society that forces established residents off their property needs to take a long hard look at itself and hopefully this report will be part of that selfappraisal.
However, in providing relief in one area we should be careful not to cause disadvantage in other areas so the whole thing is balanced on a fine line, and is subjective.
The decision of what is right and wrong will be based on personal opinions and political considerations.
One of the major criticisms of the investigation is that one among the committee was highly qualified and perhaps too powerful for other members.
It seems a paradox to criticise a person by praising his or her skills.
Perhaps it was most fortunate, in the long term, that the council was able to have such a person on the committee because this document has the potential to become a reference in years to come.
Whatever the shortterm outcome from this report, I believe the work was highly worthwhile because of the informative document it has produced.