Mid-Western Regional Council adopted the Operational Plan 2019/20 and Revised Delivery Program 2017-2021 at their extraordinary meeting last Wednesday, declining submissions that the increase in mining category rates revenue is "unfair and unreasonable".
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In April the Valuer General updated land valuations with a base date of July 1, 2018, for all properties within the local government area. With a supplementary valuation issued in June, which included changes for a valuation in the mining category. This was as a result of a corrected discrepancy in calculation of land values within the category. Thus, a mining rate of 1.763070 cents in the dollar on the land value as at July 1, was set for the 2019/20 financial year, up from 0.369051.
Glencore (Ulan), Yancoal (Moolarben), Peabody Energy (Wilpinjong), Kepco (proposed Bylong Coal project), along with the NSW Minerals Council, submitted objections to revised revenue policy because they said it was a breach of Local Government Act and that it was an "unfair and unreasonable" burden on the sector.
The former referring to the requirement that a council must have its operational plan and revenue policy adopted before the financial year - during which time this draft plan was back on public exhibition. Council's response to this was that they considered the act and due to the timing of the supplementary valuation in June, the best interests of the community and the higher importance of public participation, this was the most appropriate way forward.
In regards to the latter, their response was that applying the whole of the additional income - generated by corrected discrepancy in the values of mining land - solely to that category is not unreasonable. This was because the alternatives were to; allocate that income to other categories, where the land value has not increased; or ignore the increase in value and forego the income, by not levying a rate to reflect it.
Cr Paul Cavalier moved to amend the mining rate to 1.257807 cents in the dollar on the value, but it was lost.
"What is proposed in the business paper represents a significant increase in the rating revenue for Council. However, what really irks me is the significant amount of damage that has been done to the relationship between our organisation and such a significant contributor to our rating revenue," he said. "We've spoken with the mine managers in relation to our proposal and they have come to us with a reduced offer, which I'm happy to support and hence the reason I've moved the way I have."
Cr Peter Shelley said the the plan is "fair and equitable... for our community".
"This is an Operational Plan that has been a lot of months in preparation and decisions made by Council. I totally understand the mining proposal and their concerns, unfortunately we must act fair and equitably across all rate categories," he said.
