Rate Increase Proposal by Hornsby Shire

Robert Ball, General Manager, and Julie Williams, Manager Corporate Strategy, of Hornsby Shire Council gave a most excellent presentation at the Beecroft Bowling Club last night, on the financial status of the shire and the need to consider raising rents above the cap.
The main single reason driving the proposal is to replace the Hornsby Aquatic Centre, a 50 meter pool with grandstands, providing a very important service to the youth, and schools, of the Shire.
However the rest of the justification for the increase involves a plethora of lesser items, like storm drains, road repairs, improved parks and facilities - small individually but hugely important in total.
Most of the Shire's infrastructure and facilities were built between 1945 and 1981, and much of it is reaching the end of its useful life. A very important sentence in the documentation provided reads "during past periods of rapid infrastructure expansion, little or no analysis was done to understand cumulative long term economic, social, and cultural consequences of these decisions". It was very clear from Robert's presentation that the Shire is doing their best not to perpetuate that unhappy situation.
Robert says that in Australia local government gets just 3% of total taxation, yet spends 11% of all public expenditure. The situation is getting worse, with State government passing down to local government expensive new duties without increasing finance. Just one example provided was Transport Infrastructure Development Corp acquiring land worth $580,000 at Berowra railway station without compensating the shire.
Anyway the result of all this is that the Shire needs increased funding from rates if they are to give ratepayers the service we want. After hearing all the facts, and listening to the subsequent debate, I voted for the full increase requested.
To hear more, and to have your input to the debate, please note these events:

22 Feb Have Your Say Session At Cherrybrook Village Shops
24 Feb Have Your Say Session At Hornsby Library
28 Feb Community Meeting - 7pm Council Chambers 296 Pacific Highway Hornsby
1 Mar Have Your Say Session At Brooklyn Marina
2 Mar Have Your Say Session At Kimbriki Tip Tour
7 Mar Community Meeting - 7pm Berowra RSL Club 997 Pacific Highway Berowra
7 Mar Have Your Say Session At Westleigh Shops
14 Mar Have Your Say Session At Epping Library15 Mar 2011 Have Your Say Session At Carlingford Shops