Dubbo City Council will not be part of any voluntary amalgamations with neighbouring councils, despite the state government throwing a number of incentives to try and tempt interested parties.
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A spokeswoman for Minister for Local Government Paul Toole was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying the government would make it easier for merged councils to raise their property rates above the peg.
Newly re-elected Mayor Mathew Dickerson said the incentive wouldn't change Dubbo's position on the issue.
"This council has a policy at the moment, where we've said we don't think we should be involved in amalgamations at this stage. Wellington, Gilgandra, Narromine, we've with all of those to see how we can share resource," Cr Dickerson said.
"It [raising rates] is too easy a solution and maybe that's the mindset of different levels of government, 'if we need some extra money, let's put the prices up'. I think there are smarter ways to do it and what we have been looking at with fellow councils in Orange and Bathurst and OROC, Wellington, Narromine, Gilgandra, is a range of projects to share back end resources and make us more efficient.
"At some point in time we may need to put rates up above CPI but that's not our focus, and that's not sustainable long term."
Deputy Mayor Ben Shields said an amalgamation between any of the region's councils would be a step backwards.
"Amalgamation is a pathetic joke. I can't understand how on one hand the government realises that the late-90s and early 2000s experiment of merging health boards into one cluster was a massive failure, while going down the exact same path with councils," Cr Shields said.
"The think merging is going to cause efficiencies but it won't. It will create more bureaucracies with more administration. It's going to be a mega council that's not really accountable to any locals at all."
Dubbo Ratepayers Association president Merrilyn Mulcahy said her organisation is strongly opposed to councils being allowed to pass the buck onto ratepayers.
"We certainly don't approve of it. It's a rip off and if they really want to help Western councils, they should be looking to bring people across the mountains and decentralise government departments," she said.
"We don't think giving councils free rein on rates will solve anything."
