Armidale Regional Council levies some of the highest rates in the state, and this afternoon Councillors will vote on keeping more of that money for themselves.
One of the first matters on the agenda in today’s Council meeting is a proposal to fix the fees paid to the maximum allowable – $27,050 per councillor, and an additional $66,800 for the Mayor.
The Deputy Mayor can also be paid an allowance under the rules, but it must be deducted from the Mayoral allowance. The business papers for tonight’s meeting indicate all $93,850 is going to Mayor Sam Coupland.
The Local Government Remuneration Tribunal sets reviews the fees paid to councillors every three years, and has recently approved an increase of 3.75% to fees from July 1. However, it is then up to individual councils to determine their pay within an approved range.
For the 2024-25 financial year, annual fees payable to Councillors in the Regional Centre category range (which applies to Armidale) from a minimum of $15,370 to a maximum of $27,050 and an additional annual Mayoral fee from a minimum of $31,980 to a maximum of $66,800.
Tomorrow night Glen Innes Severn will also seek to set themselves the maximum increase. But as they are a classified as a Rural Council there is an enormous difference in the amount paid for the same work. The maximum councillors fee is $13,520 and the additional Mayoral fee is $29,500.
And at last night’s Council meeting in Tamworth, another New England council implemented the maximum increase to their rates.
Tamworth Regional Council has voted to increase its total ordinary rate income by 18.5 per cent next financial year through implementing the Special Rate Variation approved by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.
The decision was supported by a majority of the 9 Councillors. Councillors Rodda and Mears formally requested for their names to be recorded as voting against the move.
In addition to the Ordinary Rate rise, there will be an increase of 4.9% per cent to water availability (annual) charges, water consumption (usage) charges and water developer charges and the same increase to waste annual charges.
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