Bourke Shire General Manager Ross Earl writes on issues affecting the Far West.
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The Bourke Shire Council will be sending ratepayers information this week on the NSW Government’s new Fire and Emergency Services Levy (FESL) and the impact on rates of related property valuations.
It will accompany the council’s fourth instalment rate notices and, where applicable, the water consumption accounts for the period ended March 31.
The FESL information will detail the classification of a property for the purposes of the levy and explain why it was introduced, how it will work and how it is calculated.
The classification details and explanation details have been forwarded at the request of State Treasury.
If any ratepayer has a query in relation to their classification they should contact council staff, who will explain the classification system. Also included in the envelope is a letter written by council which details that the introduction of the new valuations for the shire was a result of the introduction of the FESL and to ensure equity across the state with everyone having the same base date for valuations.
It also details the impact of those new valuations on rates for individual properties. It is important that all ratepayers read the information so they fully understand the changes. Those persons who have already paid their rates in full will still receive the letter detailing their classification and the letter detailing the impact of the valuation changes.
As I have indicated on a number of occasions, while the FESL will appear on the rate notice and be collected by council – all the FESL will be forwarded to the state government with council only collecting it on their behalf.
Some non-rateable properties will receive a rate notice for the first time as the FESL relates to the obligation of the property to contribute to the funding of the Emergency Services which was previously done by a contribution via insurance policies.
Given some of the differences in the way in which the databases work for the rates and the FESL it proved very difficult to try to ensure that persons who receive multiple notices could have these collated and sent in a single envelope and multi-owners will receive a number of advices.