Dear residents,

In reference to the

WDN front page story

"Rates Rage” of Thursday, June 29.

In the 12 years I have lived in this town and the last two election campaigns I have been involved with, the conversations I have had with ratepayers without fail have been about the possibility of quarterly rates notices.

The reason being to spread the burden across the year, instead of an annual bill.

The finance manager and staff have listened to requests from the councillors to try and help ratepayers spread their payments.

They have spent many months working on a model that will do this and it will be implemented over the next year.

The council took our draft budget out for public consultation, to inform the ratepayers that there would be a 3.4% increase across the board, under the 4% increase that was in the financial forecast.

SDRC is the only council in Queensland that does this kind of consultation.

I am happy to say that we had many more attendees this year than last year, however the number is still very small in a region of 18,000 ratepayers.

We would love to see many more in the years to come.

There were many submissions received,

which were all taken into account, including suggestions about quarterly rates notices.

The SDRC has been very transparent in the budget process.

The general rates component will still attract a 7.5% discount if paid by the due date.

There is no opportunity lost for the discount.

There are no hidden charges.

It just means that the water and waste water charges are on two separate bills, along with your water usage.

If you don't understand the rates notice, please contact Council Finance staff on 1300MYSDRC.

They will be very happy to talk you through it.

Yve Stocks

Councillor