SA Footy

Discussion in the office this morning was a colleague who has just received her council rates - City of Playford.

Her house is valued at $141k (according to the council) - and her yearly rates are $1200! she said all she gets is the bins collected and has to even pay extra if she wants her green bin emptied (not sure if any Playford rate payers can confirm)

By comparison, another colleage lives in Mitcham with a house value of $500k and pays $100 more per year

She said she rang the council and said that the rise was to pay for new parks with all the new houses being built.

I believe this now makes them the most expensive council in Adelaide?

My house is valued at over $300k and I only pay $800 (PAE)

How relevant do you think your council rates are for where you live, what your house is worth and what you get for your money?

Are you rated based on capital or site value FC?

Don't ask me luv, I just pay the bill

I gather then that different councils use different means by which to value one's home?

Yeah thats right, different rating methodology. Another factor is a fixed charge, some Councils apply a fixed charge to all properties to balance out the rates due for each year, to try to have a fairer spread relational to services

PAE is Capital Value, which means they are rating residential properties at an extremely good rate in the dollar. I assume you don't have a fixed charge as your property value x the residential rate in the dollar (0.00267) = $801.

Does PAE have Effluent schemes or Residential Waste Collection or is this managed externally to Council?

I guess my point is that when comparing rates there are several different factors to consider. In my Council area my residential rate is far cheaper than yours but i pay a fixed charge of $360. On top of this we have septic charges of $330ish and pay for 3 bin system to be collected. When its all said and done i own a $400k property and pay approx $1600 in rates.

Geez its more interesting talking Footy!!!

And anyone who says they only get their bin emptied should not be commenting on the issue. NFI

Does she drive on roads, have water diverted through stormwater, walk on a footpath, read street signs....

Immunisation
Libraries with books and free internet
Control of public nuisances
Monitoring of insanitary conditions
Control of pest animals and plants
Food safety inspections
Roads (local roads - that is, not national highways or State arterial roads)
Footpaths
Stormwater drainage
Parks and gardens
Street lighting
On street parking
Traffic management and local road safety
Reserves and picnic areas
Recreation facilities and centres
Ovals
Public swimming pools
Rubbish collection and disposal
Recycling
Information services
Free internet in libraries
Community centres
Skate parks
Community development programs
Arts and cultural programs
Online services
Community services such as Home and Community Care
Employment /Training Programs
Economic Development
Tourism information and support
Community buses
Environmental management
Festivals and events
Youth Advisory Committees
Caravan Parks
Cemeteries
Wetlands
Local Museums and Heritage support
Coastcare and Dunecare projects
Business support
Local Area Water Catchment Plans
Landcare programs
Dry zones
Aged care
Cycling tracks
Crime prevention
Community leadership and advocacy
Septic Tank effluent disposal scheme

Footy Chick wrote:Discussion in the office this morning was a colleague who has just received her council rates - City of Playford.

Her house is valued at $141k (according to the council) - and her yearly rates are $1200! she said all she gets is the bins collected and has to even pay extra if she wants her green bin emptied (not sure if any Playford rate payers can confirm)

She gets a bit more than bins emptied. Even if she doesn't use the library, park facilities, old folks club, sporting clubs, dog parks, attend community events or other things people expect from a council, she does drive on a shed load of roads maintained by council - that costs a bomb.
Playford's problem is that it has a massive road network, if not the largest in metro SA (I think Loxton Waikerie has the most in rural SA), which includes a large number of dirt roads in its rural area - Virginia, Buckland Park etc. That ain't cheap to maintain.

Yeah I guess different people have different ideas of what they feel is value for money.

PAE we automatically have our bins emptied each week, with the green and recycle bins alternating weeks. I have no complaints about my council or the rates I pay.

I thought roads were federal but footpaths were council?

*edit* Der, if you have lots of roads, i guess you have lots of footpaths

Footy Chick wrote:Yeah I guess different people have different ideas of what they feel is value for money.

PAE we automatically have our bins emptied each week, with the green and recycle bins alternating weeks. I have no complaints about my council or the rates I pay.

I thought roads were federal but footpaths were council?

Nope. National highways are federal. Little else.

Footy Chick wrote:Discussion in the office this morning was a colleague who has just received her council rates - City of Playford.

Her house is valued at $141k (according to the council) - and her yearly rates are $1200! she said all she gets is the bins collected and has to even pay extra if she wants her green bin emptied (not sure if any Playford rate payers can confirm)

By comparison, another colleage lives in Mitcham with a house value of $500k and pays $100 more per year

She said she rang the council and said that the rise was to pay for new parks with all the new houses being built.

I believe this now makes them the most expensive council in Adelaide?

My house is valued at over $300k and I only pay $800 (PAE)

How relevant do you think your council rates are for where you live, what your house is worth and what you get for your money?

FC, I worked at another council and we heard via the grapevine that CoP was broke. The only way a council has to raise money is by charging more for their services.

We also heard that the SA Govt were telling CoP that they'd no longer pay council rates for housing trust houses. So that meant even more of an impost on people living in that council district.

Having worked for the council, I had little idea how much they provide the community. I did think it was just picking up the bins and maybe fixing a pot hole here and there, but they provide over 100 services (not all of them ones I consume) so I have a great appreciation of how they operate. Our council is full of great people so I think my rates are quite good and I certainly don't begrudge paying them.

westcoastpanther wrote:And anyone who says they only get their bin emptied should not be commenting on the issue. NFI

Thanks WCP, you've just backed up my point.

Cheers

Does anyone know the ratio of Housing trust to private homes in Playford nowdays? No wonder Playford would be broke if the Govt stopped paying council rates, or is the Housing trust now passing this cost on in rent increases, I wonder?

Why would you, as a home owner in Playford, be happy with paying such high rates to cover what the government won't pay for anymore?

westcoastpanther wrote:And anyone who says they only get their bin emptied should not be commenting on the issue. NFI

Does she drive on roads, have water diverted through stormwater, walk on a footpath, read street signs....

Immunisation
Libraries with books and free internet
Control of public nuisances
Monitoring of insanitary conditions
Control of pest animals and plants
Food safety inspections
Roads (local roads - that is, not national highways or State arterial roads)
Footpaths
Stormwater drainage
Parks and gardens
Street lighting
On street parking
Traffic management and local road safety
Reserves and picnic areas
Recreation facilities and centres
Ovals
Public swimming pools
Rubbish collection and disposal
Recycling
Information services
Free internet in libraries
Community centres
Skate parks
Community development programs
Arts and cultural programs
Online services
Community services such as Home and Community Care
Employment /Training Programs
Economic Development
Tourism information and support
Community buses
Environmental management
Festivals and events
Youth Advisory Committees
Caravan Parks
Cemeteries
Wetlands
Local Museums and Heritage support
Coastcare and Dunecare projects
Business support
Local Area Water Catchment Plans
Landcare programs
Dry zones
Aged care
Cycling tracks
Crime prevention
Community leadership and advocacy
Septic Tank effluent disposal scheme

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but apart from all that, what have the Councils done for us.....

Ron Burgundy wrote:Yeah thats right, different rating methodology. Another factor is a fixed charge, some Councils apply a fixed charge to all properties to balance out the rates due for each year, to try to have a fairer spread relational to services

PAE is Capital Value, which means they are rating residential properties at an extremely good rate in the dollar. I assume you don't have a fixed charge as your property value x the residential rate in the dollar (0.00267) = $801.

Does PAE have Effluent schemes or Residential Waste Collection or is this managed externally to Council?

I guess my point is that when comparing rates there are several different factors to consider. In my Council area my residential rate is far cheaper than yours but i pay a fixed charge of $360. On top of this we have septic charges of $330ish and pay for 3 bin system to be collected. When its all said and done i own a $400k property and pay approx $1600 in rates.

Geez its more interesting talking Footy!!!

Also, comparing property values and rates in the dollar between councils is irrelevant, as what you are rated depends on each council's budget and you then pay a proportion depending on your value compared to others in the council area.

Partially true.

Rates arent only incurred on residential properties, but also commercial, industrial, vacant land, primary production etc. Yes Councils have budgets to balance, but the way the rate revenue is raised differs from Council to councils. Some Councils feel that industry can bear more of the cost that residential, and others dont want Vacant land to remain vacant, so rate the bejesus out of it. All sorts of different mechanisms.

As for the govt not paying rates for housing trust properties, this isnt true. Going forward, the state govt isnt going to provide pensioner rebates for rates (and several pensioners live in housing trust) which will affect the rates that these pensioners pay. May be getting confused with this??

Playford isn't in deficit. It was several years ago, however it is predicting a $1.5 million surplus in 2015/16.
I think this will be the second surplus in a row.

The Housing Trust/rates issue is an interesting one...

Dogwatcher wrote:Playford isn't in deficit. It was several years ago, however it is predicting a $1.5 million surplus in 2015/16.
I think this will be the second surplus in a row.

The Housing Trust/rates issue is an interesting one...

No bloody wonder with the prices they're charging

Time for the scribe to do some investigative report!

Look, in my line of work, we're quick to fire off at council when they're being profligate or involved in projects that aren't necessarily what the community needs.

I look at the projects Playford is trying to complete, in order to get more jobs and business into the community and it seems fair.

Dogwatcher wrote:Playford isn't in deficit. It was several years ago, however it is predicting a $1.5 million surplus in 2015/16.
I think this will be the second surplus in a row.

The Housing Trust/rates issue is an interesting one...

Have a chat to Christopher Pyne about the pensioner concession cuts, and you will get yourself a strong opinion!

gadj1976 wrote:

westcoastpanther wrote:And anyone who says they only get their bin emptied should not be commenting on the issue. NFI

Thanks WCP, you've just backed up my point.

Cheers

Spot the Council workers!!

westcoastpanther wrote:

gadj1976 wrote:

westcoastpanther wrote:And anyone who says they only get their bin emptied should not be commenting on the issue. NFI

Thanks WCP, you've just backed up my point.

Cheers

Spot the Council workers!!

they are the ones leaning on their shovels?