REDLAND City councillor Wendy Boglary has warned that existing ratepayers could face substantially higher bills if they are forced to meet a growing gap between developer contributions and the cost of infrastructure needed for new housing.
Cr Boglary raised the concern during discussion of Council’s August monthly financial report, saying Council expected to recover only about 29 per cent of the cost of its Local Government Infrastructure Plan through developer charges.
She said the estimated $40 million-a-year shortfall would have to be met from other sources, potentially placing significant pressure on rates.
“Despite having these constrained reserves and infrastructure charges being collected from developers, there’s still a gap in funding to cover the cost of infrastructure,” Cr Boglary said.
“This means Council cannot deliver the infrastructure required in the plan to accommodate new growth and it must be funded by other means, since the developer charge does not cover it.”
Cr Boglary said the shortfall remained even after reduced projects and levels of service were considered.
She said a 1 per cent rates increase raised about $1.5 million for Council, meaning rates would need to rise by about 27 per cent if they were the only source used to bridge the annual infrastructure gap.
Cr Boglary called on the State Government to investigate changes to developer charging arrangements, arguing proponents of new development should contribute more towards the infrastructure required to support growth.
The comments came amid debate over Council’s $350 million cash balance, which Acting Mayor Julie Talty said had been wrongly interpreted in social media commentary as spare money available to cut or supplement ratepayer bills.
“The figure being quoted represents a point-in-time cash balance, and it should not be interpreted as a surplus amount of cash available for spending,” Cr Talty said.
