Rates tackled

By Bridget Brady
CASEY council has tightened its belt to help spare ratepayers a record rate rise, but at the expense of a “heartbroken” rugby club.
The council on Tuesday night said it was pleased to announce this year’s rate rise would be 5.96 per cent – almost half of the 11.69 per cent initially proposed to cover the costs of the Brookland Greens methane gas cash blow-out.
The new rate rise is now less than the state average.
To help bring the rate rise down, the council shaved about $2.4 million off its budget, which included the scrapping of a $1.4 million rugby pavilion at Casey Fields for the Casey Chiefs Junior Rugby League Club.
President of the club, Chris Howard, said it was shattering news.
“This will just about kill our club and rip the heart out of this club,” he said.
Mr Howard said members were fed up with travelling long distances to play home games, and some would throw in the towel.
“We’ve asked for the rooms for 10 years. I think we’ve been pretty patient. We were really looking forward to it.
“It’s a massive big family we’ve got down there.”
The rate rise was also able to be lowered after the council accepted the State Government’s contribution of $20.5 million to the Stevensons Road landfill clean up.
With the deal also came conditions, which include the council agreeing not to take legal action against the Government for the next 18 months and not to make any public ‘adverse comment’ about the amount given.
The council had initially asked for $41.9 million from the Government.
Former Casey councillor Brian Hetherton said councillors showed “weakness” in accepting the Government’s conditions, and believed the council should have persisted further to secure more money.
Councillor Sam Aziz said the council had worked hard to achieve the best possible outcome for ratepayers.
“Now is the time for us to really move forward,” Cr Aziz said.
Casey mayor Lorraine Wreford said some difficult decisions had to be made in the budget that were out of the council’s direct control.
Balla Balla Ward councillor Geoff Ablett, who campaigned for the rugby project to remain in the budget, said he was further disappointed when the opportunity arose for the council to allocate $820,000 of Federal Government funding.
The money will be spent on seven different projects, mostly landscape and development works.
“I thought it was a heck of kick in the guts to rugby in general and this particular group,” Cr Ablett said.
Endeavour Hills resident Tricia Clarke, who was outraged at the previously proposed 11.69 per cent rate rise, said she was now pleased with the new figure and said it would not have been achieved without the outcry from the community.