City of Kwinana passes 7.5 per cent streetlight tariff on to ratepayers

Kwinana ratepayers will feel the increased cost of streetlights in their hip pockets after its city council chose to change its already advertised rates plan to cover a price hike from Western Power at a special council meeting. The few dollars extra is not as much as ratepayers could have been slugged however, after Western Power had originally proposed a massive 44 per cent increase in the cost of street lighting to local governments. Councils statewide were outraged by the late proposal after many had already firmed up budget plans for the coming financial year, but the Economic Regulatory Authority knocked it back on May 18. Instead, a 7.5 per cent cost increase was accepted, forcing councils to reconsider their budgets anyway. Prior to the ERA’s decision, Kwinana had settled on an average 3.95 per cent rate increase, which was considered low enough to acknowledge the toll of an increased cost of living on the community. The 7.5 per cent street lighting tariff equates to a new cost for the city of an extra $105,000. Kwinana city officers recommended the cost be passed on to ratepayers, saying their original budget had already been stretched for savings to ease cost-of-living pressures. “To account for this additional cost, council must either consider reducing services or increase rates,” the report said. “Due to the city already running services very efficiently ... there is no further opportunity to accommodate cost shifts through savings, and an increase over the advertised proposed rate is required to cover the additional streetlight charges.” Taking the new tariff into account, minimum residential and rural rates in Kwinana will increase a few more dollars — a $47 increase instead of a $44 increase on last year’s numbers — and bump the minimum up to $1173. The minimum for commercial, mining and industrial will be set at $1528, representing an average 4.2 per cent increase across all of the city’s rating categories.