This is the conundrum facing Port Stephens councillors when the hotly contentious Special Rate Variation (SRV) proposal is tabled for discussion at the October 9 council meeting.

Three months ago mayor Ryan Palmer, supported by the majority of his council colleagues, put forward a proposal to raise the household rates from 2.7 per cent (for 2019-20 as mandated by IPART) to as high as 8.5 per cent.

In return Port ratepayers are being promised around $100 million in infrastructure and services, including $36 million on revitalising town centres, $56m to improve roads and pathways, $16m on better drainage and $9.5m on sport and recreation facilities.

The proposal has generated a huge community response with around 2000 submissions and is sure to provoke fiery debate among councillors.

While Cr Palmer has shouldered much of the advocacy for the SRV, this week he received public support from councillor Paul Le Mottee, who said that overwhelming the majority of people were in favour of the plan when the process of costing and acquittal was explained to them.

“The residents I speak to say they do want better town centres, roads, cycle and pathways and that they are prepared to pay a little extra for them,” Cr Le Mottee said.

“This council can continue at its current level of maintenance and service, or it can look to go ahead and I believe there is a clear mandate from ratepayers that are willing to pay for more infrastructure and projects.”

The argument against any rate rise has been led by Labor’s Cr Giacomo Arnott, who has been scathing in his attack on the plan, declaring that ratepayers cannot afford to pay the 6.5 to 8.5 per cent increase on their rates over seven years.

“I've been consulting with our community and the reality is that the vast majority of people simply can't afford the increase,” Cr Arnott said.

“This rate rise will be compounding every single year, and will remain as part of the rate base at the end of the seven years. This increase will be part of all residents' rates into the future.

“I'm worried about pensioners, people on fixed incomes, casual workers, renters, young people trying to break into the housing market. This increase will make life so much more difficult.

“With electricity, petrol, insurance and inflation all rising, wages stagnant, and unemployment continuing to rise locally, increasing rates is irresponsible and has the potential to hurt swathes of people in our community.”

Cr Palmer said the council had managed to reach a broad section of the community and that he had been particularly pleased to get feedback from younger people through the independent phone survey.

“These projects are about the next generation of Port Stephens residents. Those, like myself, that want to bring their families up in our towns, so their opinion was particularly important,” he said.

“The community want to hear more details around the projects, such as how we’ll rejuvenate town centres, what the new sporting facilities will look like and which roads we’ll reseal.

“Some on lower fixed incomes have highlighted affordability as their prime concern, so we’ll be reviewing our hardship policy as part of any application for a rate increase. 

“This is a vote to increase investment in Port Stephens.”

IPART chairman Dr Peter Boxall said that next year’s rate peg of 2.7 per cent was higher than it had been in recent years (2.3 per cent in 2018-19 and 1.5 per cent in 2017-18), primarily due to increases in labour and energy costs and higher construction costs for roads, drains, footpaths, kerbing and bridges.