Federation Council's proposed rate rise raises concerns from advisory chairman

Derek Schoen doubts the council will be granted its request to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to have rates lifted by 74.59 per cent over four years given there had been more than 250 submissions opposed to it.

"They're going to have to seriously look at the way they communicate with the community and make sure they get this community engagement right to ensure that people are up to speed on what council wants to achieve, and how they propose to do it," he said.

"There doesn't seem to be any serious attempt to curtail cost or improve productivity of staff. (Some of) the productivity is absolutely woeful and they'd be better off putting it out to contract."

Mr Schoen said the council had to take into consideration the amount of people doing it tough before it considered a steep rate rise.

"They're having trouble paying the electricity bill and food bill let alone council rates, to put him in contact with a financial counsellor is just a nonsense," he said.

"Council has to start looking at their cost structure and productivity and really get on top of that before they come back to the ratepayers with their hand out for more money."

Federation mayor Pat Bourke said the council's draft plans had a long-term outlook for the area.

"We know these long-term decisions such as the request to increase rates are never popular, but sometimes the popular decisions are not always in the interests of the longer term," he said.

"We always have to balance the demands on our assets, such as roads, against the capacity to pay for these services. We also have to balance investment into many other areas and not just roads, recognising our rates come from many areas who all have different priorities.

"We know we have plenty of areas that require significant investment from years of underfunding, and we have plenty of strategic work still ahead of us."

Federation is one of 17 councils across NSW that have applied to IPART for a special variation to increase income from rates above the rate peg.

If the rate increase is approved and applied by council, the average residential rate increase for 2023-24 is $2.63 per week, with $4.66 and $13.11, respectively, for business and farm owners.

Cr Bourke said the council was aware of the cost of living pressures, which was a factor in its decision to take a staged approach of applying for a special rate variation.

He said the council would also receive a report on pensioner subsidy options.

Federation Council has hosted engagement sessions in recent months to gain community feedback before it adopts the 2023-24 operational plan and four-year delivery program at the end of June, with further sessions planned for Corowa, Howlong, Mulwala and Urana next week.

Key documents will be on public exhibition until 5pm on May 31.

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