Discount on early payment garners rates for City of Greater Geraldton

City of Greater Geraldton ratepayers have responded well to the “carrot” of a 5 per cent discount for rates payment in full after the removal of the “stick” of a charge for payment by instalments. Mayor Shane Van Styn said early indications were that the discount had proven popular with ratepayers. When they met last week, councillors breathed a collective sigh of relief as they learnt enough rates had been collected for the City of Greater Geraldton to keep conducting business as usual. On August 22, the City’s chief finance officer Renee Doughty told the council 56.32 per cent of rates were already in, compared with 56.46 at the same time last year. To ease the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, the council has this year waived the usual penalties for part-payment. But the budget included a 5 per cent discount as an incentive for people who paid their rates by the due date of Monday, August 24. Ms Doughty told the council the City had already collected $26.3 million of the $46.6 that had been levied at close of business on Tuesday, with more payments yet to be processed. “Based on these received funds the City is pleased given the current economic climate and conditions,” she said. “It will be more than the previous year and that gives us a lot more confidence that we may be able to maintain some sort of normality with regards to incoming funds and outgoings.” In June the council passed a budget with a zero percentage increase on the rate in the dollar levied to soften the blow of COVID-19 restrictions. It includes a projected $11m fall in City revenue, including a $5m spending decrease and a $6m deficit. The budget contains other measures to ease the pain including free parking, waived pool and health inspection charges, and no increase in rubbish charges and councillors’ allowances.