To Oppose Hope Island "Special Levies"

The Gold Coast City Council is proposing to charge Hope Island rate payers for the construction of the two Sickle Avenue Bridges.

The North Bridge completed at a final cost of $4,337,143.87. The South Bridge has not yet been designed but our information is it will be similar to the North Bridge and its cost will be based on estimates. Council has contracted outside companies to prepare the levies for all those deemed to benefit from the bridges. Roughly this means all property owners whose only access is via both bridges and a separate category of the property owners whose only access is via the South Bridge.

The levy is based on your UCV and to give you some idea a property with a UCV of $247,500.00 to use both bridges was advised of $2,589.50 for the North Bridge, $3,200.00 for the South Bridge, total $5,789.50 and that was last year! So with loan interest accruing by Council we could expect this figure for 2010 to be more like $6,000.00 You can estimate from this the approximate amount that you will have to pay by a pro rata adjustment e.g. if your UCV is 25% more then your levy will be 25 percent more. April 2010 Council has deferred the descision on the Levy till the next Annual Budget Meeting beginning in April of 2011. Council is also proposing to raise rates by 5.2%. 2011 is also a Council re-election year.

The three possible outcomes are:
1. Councillors have the ability to transfer all the above levies to the general rates.
2. The Judicial Inquiries instigated by the prominent area developers will be successful.
3. We will all end up paying the Parks and Bridges Levies.

The Council has previously raised money to pay for the tennis courts and park by charging a Special Levy to the rate payers of Hope Island. Public Road, Public Bridges - why should we pay for something that everyone has access to?