A STATE Government plan to increase landfill levies by $10/tonne per year for the next seven years is nothing short of gouging, Mayor Duncan Gair told Wingecarribee Council this week.
Cr Gair said the increase, announced by Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt following the recent mini-budget, would add $65 to every Wingecarribee household’s annual garbage service bill by 2015, resulting in more illegal dumping.
Southern Region councils would be collecting more than $10 million for the State Government by 2015 just for depositing domestic garbage, he said in a mayoral minute to Wednesday’s meeting.
Cr Gair said the levy increase was a straight-out ratepayer contribution to the State Government coffers, but council would carry the blame.
“Next year, when we pass this on in our rate strategy, it will be seen by the general public as another $10 council is going to get,” he said.
In a letter advising of the rate rise, Ms Tebbutt said the levy had been the NSW Government’s most effective tool in reducing waste disposal in the Sydney metropolitan area.
But Cr Gair said out of $486,511 paid to the State Government in landfill levies in 2007/08, Wingecarribee Council had received only $75,000 back to spend on waste minimisation.
Cr Gair said the landfill levy on Wingecarribee Council was unreasonable considering the shire’s efforts to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.
For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Friday, November 28
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