12:00a.m. 10th May 2008

Sunshine Coast home owners are facing rate rises of about 5.5% when the super council hands down its first budget on July 3.

Residential ratepayers on the minimum general rate now pay an average of $1570 a year.

The 5.5% increase will add $96 to their rates, assuming they are connected to all services such as water, sewerage and garbage disposal and are paying the environmental levy.

The new Coast regional council has agreed to use the local government association’s cost index as a benchmark for rates increases.

The hikes are likely to vary across the region.

Regional director of finance and corporate services Greg Laverty said council staff salary increases alone would account for a 2.1% hike.

He said the increased costs associated with asset maintenance and depreciation would add to the figure.

Mr Laverty said property revaluations and the costs associated with water reform would also impact on the bottom line.

He said some tentative steps were being taken towards a single rating system across the region, but separate budgets would be prepared for each local authority area – Caloundra, Maroochy and Noosa – before they were merged into a single document.

“There would be a revenue statement from each council and we will work through the numbers and do quite a bit of modelling to determine the impact on individual ratepayers,” Mr Laverty said.

“Pensioner discounts are different in each of the local authorities, the revaluations will be different across them, they have different rating systems and different financial systems.

“The three local authorities will probably have slightly different levels of increase and we’ll be starting with three separate budgets, which will be merged into one.

“It won’t be easy but we’ll get there.”

Mr Laverty said amalgamation was expected to add to council costs in the short term.

Any savings as a result of having a single regional authority were unlikely to emerge for several years.

The state government has guaranteed job security for all council staff for the next three years.

“We are putting together a list of costs and benefits to flow from amalgamation, but in the first couple of years there won’t be a lot of savings,” Mr Laverty said.

“The benefits will begin to accrue towards the end of this council term, but mostly amalgamation will mean additional costs in the short term.”

The council is holding a series of pre-budget information meetings in coming weeks that will be open to the public.

The next meeting will be on Monday, May 12.