Rates
We had the most beautiful sunset last night and the camera on my phone really picked up the red, producing some of the best colours I have seen using this phone. Often it will turn oranges to purple, but last night's colouring was perfect. I will post one of these photos with my blog.
The red is also a reflection of the anger I felt yesterday when I received an expensive, gloss-covered letter from council, telling me how it is going to bring in a uniform rate for people across the district for their waste and water payments. The upshot is that our community will have the third highest rise for these services by the 2025/26 year, an amount of $248. And we don't even have water services, rather, each property has its own tank.
My rates are already high, at $3000 annually and my house is only a small two-bedroomed one. Before I moved here, residents were asked to fork out for a new sewerage system and extra was added to our rates for that. I know of someone in another community whose house was valued at double the price of mine, had more land, plus a town water supply and his rates were several hundred dollars less than mine. It seems like we will be paying twice and though council states it will be fairer, it doesn't seem like it.
Another thing in the letter that I found suspect was that people will still have to pay for the service if it is available and they choose not to use it. For example, someone may wish to use their own tank supply, but have to pay for the water service because it could be connected to, even though they haven't done so.
To me, that takes away any incentive for sustainable living. Surely, every household not using the main water supply would mean less chance of a shortage for every one else.
I don't see the logic.
I guess time will tell. And these rises are just for the water and waste water sections of our rates. There is everything else as well.
But perhaps it is all a lottery. I see another community will save almost $3000 by the 2025/2026 year. Perhaps a new sewerage scheme will be put in there then. This decrease will certainly help those residents.
All this is before the Three Waters comes in. I haven't been following that closely, but if this is a forerunner, it is not boding well.
I am all for fairness but somehow things don't seem to be shaping up that way. If the council is standardizing our waste and water costs, what about the rest of our bill? Shouldn't then, a house and section valued more than another pay more than another, rather than the other way around?