New dispute over special rate
UPDATE Sunday 1 November: Rob de Sauty from Bright IGA has stated that they are NOT the appellant in this case (see comments). I wonder who is. Does anyone know?
IGA taking on the Alpine council?
The Alpine council’s controversial special rate – a surcharge of 50% that it imposes on commercial properties like mine - is once again under challenge. An objection has been lodged with VCAT and the hearing has been scheduled for 17 December 2009.
I might stand to be corrected on this but I’m pretty sure that the objector is Rob de Sauty, who is the major owner of the Bright IGA supermarket. Rob’s objection is possibly based on his belief that the council has not used the special rate money for the benefit of those who pay it and has, in actuality, used it to help bring the Woolies supermarket development to Bright, which will negatively impact upon his business.
I understand and sympathise with those grounds, although I do not entirely agree with them. What I do agree with is that the special rate money does not benefit ANYONE who pays it, and is wasted on salaries and the bureaucratic and useless tourism committee ‘Great Alpine Valleys Tourism Board’ (previously known as ARTB).
Quite simply, we get no value for money whatsoever for this surcharge we are forced to pay, year in and year out, and all of us would be far better off if we put that money towards our own promotion of the area. Good luck to Rob and I hope he wins.
Wally says: I'm taking y'all to VCAT, Woolies. Go on, git! Git out of 'my town'.
Contact: alpineopinion@gmail.com
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Waddaya waiting for, Ray? Where’s your protesting voice? They’re wasting your share of the levy by not incorporating the jewel in the Alpine Valleys livery.
I’d say the bigger the protest about that levy the better.
I’ve already tried it, JR. In 2006 with the then President & Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce we took the council to VCAT over the validity of the special rate.
We argued that the rate was invalid as the so-called ’special benefits’ were merely general benefits and that the programs it funded were aimed at benefitting many more people than the 600 or so who were the only ones forced to pay it.
We lost the case but I could not follow the logic of the decision. I believe it was a political decision made to ensure councils maintain their right to impose whatever special rates they see fit.
I think Rob would be using a high-powered & expensive legal team so maybe he’ll have a better shot at it.
Ray
No we arent the objectors at VCAT
I wonder if it may even be Woolworths you could imagine the magnitude of the special rate they would be up for
But i agree 100% withyour summary of our attitude to it
Like many others we question the basis of levy the expenditure of it and the Shires accountability back to commercial ratepayers
You and i have discussed this several times and i agree something has to be done
Right at the moment our focus as as a business that will be majorily effected is on hoping the Council is enforcing permit conditions of the Woolworths development
In this regard we will be making a submission to the State Govt on the processes involved in this development and will as a secondary matter raise thematter of the special rate
I will gladly give you a copy upon submission
Thanks for that clarification Rob, and I apologise for suggesting it might have been Bright IGA appealling the special rate – although I wonder why you haven’t ! I’ll make the necessary correction to my post.
Meanwhile, I wonder just who is taking this issue on, and on what grounds.
Ray
The reason we havent gone to VCAT is i dont think we could give it a better shot than you three did
It needs to be raised at State Govt level
Well, it’s in for 4 years now, Rob – that’s what they did earlier this year. No chance of appealling it until 2013 if the current case fails. They are just a law unto themselves, I’m afraid.
Btw, we were shopping @ Coles Myrtleford today (sorry) and ran into a very senior council manager doing the same. I won’t say who it was but … oh well, at least when Woolies opens a lot of locals will be shopping in Bright again and, who knows, you may even benefit from that.
It is about time somebody objected. We are in the process of objecting to the Dinner Plain special rates on the basis that the special rates have not been properly calculated in accordance with the Ministerial Guideline. It seems to be more of a “slush fund” for the council and this year they want to spend $140,000 on marketing when the village pretty much closes down after the end of the ski season. We end up paying almost $4,000 in residential rates on what is effectively a small three bedroom house. The council needs to take a reality check and realise that Dinner Plain, like Hotham, is only used in winter during the ski season, and for the rest of the year it is no different to Harrietville, Myrtleford, Omeo. In fact it is worse, there is no local television reception from what I gather and the council forces us to pay for cable television so our news bulletins come from Alice Spings, Sydney & Queensland to the extent that we feel we are living in some other State. We do not even have an Alpine Shire post code – we share with Omeo. Apparently we are also lazy – rather than asking us to mow our own grass or pay for somebody to do this to help to locals out, the council does it on our behalf – how good is that? I do not see any other Alpine Shire town getting this sort of preferentail treatment and, quite frankly, I find it pathetic. Yes, it is a fire hazard to let it grow, but each individual owner needs to take a bit of responsibility for their own property.
Thanks Stephen and I empathise somewhat with your situation, although it is a different one to the comm/ind special rate that is unfairly imposed and wrongly used down here for so-called ‘tourism promotion’ & ‘economic development’.
Firstly economic development benefits every ratepayer, not just the 600 or so forced to pay the special rate. Secondly, the tourism promotion is a joke and after all the salaries and expenses are paid (like their free junkets & dinners) there’s hardly anything left for marketing, and even then they still don’t do it right. I can honestly say that after more than 13 years in tourism in Bright I am yet to meet my first tourist brought here by any marketing campaign conducted by the council.
As for the Dinner Plain special rate though, that is more to cover maintenance costs of the Dinner Plain village/resort, isn’t it?. It’s like a body corporate fee in my opinion and, after all, isn’t that the basis on which anyone buys into DP – as an investment in a holiday resort? It mightn’t suit the handful of permanents but let’s face it, most properties are owned by non-resident investors.