Three years after its proposal to raise rates by 7.5 per cent over seven years was met with strong community objection and ultimately rejected, the council has put forward a new plan to improve its "financial sustainability" in the next 10 years.

"After a tough few years and with our new council in place, it's time to look at how we do business - where we can increase our income, find savings and strike a balance between the needs of our community and council's funded future," Port Stephens Council's acting general manager, Tim Crosdale, said.

"Non rate income options include increasing fees and charges, continuing to seek grant funding, selling underperforming assets and looking at other options for revenue.

"We also have five rate increase options ranging from a 26 per cent to 45 per cent overall rate increase, either in a single year or over a number of years."

The review of the council's long-term financial position is to determine how it will meet its budget requirements in the next decade and continue delivering community services.

In a program called Our Funded Future, the council has outlined a range options to increase revenue.

It also began a series of community consultation sessions this week to discuss the options with the community.

Among the non rate-related income options to improve revenue is to remove the exemption for Port residents from smart parking.

The rate income options include keeping the current scenario, which is 2.5 per cent per year for four years, and five Special Rate Variation (SRV) options.

The council projected that under the current base option, the income it will receive will not cover "what we need to spend to deliver services as they currently are".

The SRV options are:

"The additional income raised by an Special Rate Variation would be used to eliminate forecasted shortfalls, covering the rising costs associated with delivering planned services to our community," the council said.

The council's SRV proposal in 2018 became the Port's most controversial issue in years, with debate raging for and against a 65 per cent rate rise over seven years to be used to fund $100 million over 10 years in community projects, including rejuvenated town centres, roads and drainage, sports facilities, path and cycle ways.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal rejected the council's SRV proposal in May 2019.

IPART commissioner Dr Paul Patterson stated in his findings that there was two significant reasons for refusal - the council's financially sound position and the strong community opposition.

It was noted that only 14 per cent of people were in favour of a 7.5 per cent rate rise over seven years in the initial independent survey commissioned by the council.

Tomaree Residents and Ratepayers Association president Ben van der Wijngaart said members had an open mind on the council's Our Funded Future proposal.

"The TRRA wasn't opposed to a rate variation last time but did oppose the nature of the one proposed. We considered it to be over the top," he said.

"We believe there was justification for a rate variation, like we do now, particularly considering community demands on council services increasing over the last few years and the consequences of climate change starting to be felt, like the floods."

He added that he thought some of the advantages to the council's new proposal was that there were more options for the community to consider and that areas were not being pitted against each other for funding.

"We're encouraged by the level of consultation the council is undertaking with the community. They seem to really want to listen to them community rather than sell a precooked solution," he said.

As part of its consultation process, the council will outline its Our Funded Future options to the community through a series of consultation sessions throughout the end of July and into August.

"We want as many of our community to jump onto our website and complete the detailed online survey to provide feedback on each of the options or provide other options for council to consider," Mr Crosdale said.

"To help property owners in deciding our future, we've also set up an online calculator that shows the impact of each of the rate increase options on their property rates."

Port stephens MP Kate Washington also encouraged the community to get involved with the council's consultation sessions.

"It's an important conversation that we should all be part of," she said.

"Other than the online survey, we have other channels for people to join the conversation and provide feedback including a Facebook Live event and a number of community information sessions both face to face and online," Port Stephens Mayor Ryan Palmer said.

The community can have their say on the council's Our Funded Future options until 9am on Monday, August 8.

See the proposal and submit feedback at portstephens.nsw.gov.au/council/our-funded-future.

The council offers assistance for residents and ratepayers experiencing financial hardship.

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