In the forced marriage of Douglas and Cairns, the issue of rates will likely prove to be one of the most prickly issues for Division 10. Douglas was a AAA rated financial performer, with low debt, lower rates for the main body of mum and dad rate payers than Cairns, with more efficient ratios of staff to productivity.
When Douglas residents get told by the State that they are being merged, to achieve better efficiencies, and if in the first year, they get hit with heavy rate rises, there will be considerable gnashing of teeth. If Douglas residents get slugged when they bring low debt and a $13,000,000 dowry to the marriage, well, the dispute could be heated.
One candidate from Division 10 can only bring articulate, energetic pressure to bear in the annual rating debate, with but 1 vote in 10, this issue could well turn pear shaped, unless there is either a big increase service to Douglas, or some sort of equalization between the rates for Douglas between 2007 and 2008.
Let me take your back a few years for some history. In 2004/05, it became obvious to those with an eye on market prices, that there was going to be a big mess in Douglas, where just about every homes’ UCV (unimproved capital value) either doubled, or if you were along the beachfront, your UVC would have often tripled. Many feared a rate gouging.
It was during this period, that I introduced an idea within Douglas that took a while to catch on. The same idea I floated, later took hold in Cairns a year or so after Douglas. The old rating systems of both Douglas and Cairns had been based on small handful of categories that saw both rich and poor getting a rough deal.
The plan I proposed encouraged a range of categories and a different basis that commercial accommodation was rated by comparison to locals only accommodation.
It took me over a year, slugging away, to get traction under my idea.
And when the rubber finally hit the road on my idea, we were off and smoking into a whole new era of rating systems at a rapid rate…well, ah…at a fairer rate. With the aid of research by staff, we changed Douglas categories from a handful of categories, to 17 new categories. When the new rating system was released, the drum of complaint suddenly went to silent satisfaction.
But Cairns had not caught on and complaints from the Northern Beaches grabbed the headlines and the CCC was under pressure.
So it came as little surprise that Cairns looked to the Douglas system for ideas, following suit in its own fashion and introduced a new rating category that reflected the ideas that I had pushed and which Ian Barton’s team at the DSC had nicely sculpted. It may seem like a tall call, but if you check the minutes, it was Cr Davis pushing rate reform in Douglas and this will potentially continue in the CRC.
Being that writing your rates cheque is the single biggest ask of your local council, it’s not a small issue. And these days, your rates bill can be your single biggest annual bill. It hurts. And when you have the stupidity like me, to own 23 homes at one time, the rates bill is enough to warrant a small panic attack. I later compulsorily discovered that you only need one home, but even my single home’s rate bill can hurt.
So the multiple rating category system worked a lot more fairly.
But in Douglas, where tourism demands for shorter grass and more tourism promotion,  it’s inherent costs. I pushed to re-jig the rates, so that investment apartments with overnight commercial accommodation paid about $200 more in rates each year than an apartment for local use, were locals were either owner occupiers, or as a rental property with a lease of at least 3 months duration. The rate income from the commercial and commercial accom category were then used to satisfy the tourism sector, with added funds for the PDDT promotion crew and service standards for the tourism precincts watched more carefully. Another $200 a year has seen better occupancy levels since, with Douglas outperforming its regional neighbors, as you can read in this site’ s TOURISM section .
The last and most overdue part of my rates reform agenda came when finally, only recently, with the majority of us managing to change the Douglas rating system to afford the bill to be paid in installments, a feature Cairns has had for some time, so maybe this reform was too late, bar this final wind up year. I suspect that the Douglas system that does not bother to send reminders for those paying quarterly is maybe flawed. I don’t agree with the DSC’s 2007/08, 4% rate rise, as the only dissident councillor, simply because we had $13,000,000 of unused land assets in reserve and there was no justification for above CPI rate rises, when we were about to have ‘the car repossessed without removing a wad of cash from the glove box’. So if elected, I will be campaigning that this $13 million in idle assets, ex of Douglas, should be progressively sold and spent in Division 10.
If you want to pick a candidate with a successful track record in rate reform for equity, ponder Rod Davis.

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.