When the Government decided to merge Midcoast Water with MCC it was claimed that it would save the Midcoast Water some $2.4m per year mainly due to the merging of the backroom functions.

Well the reality is that in the period from 01/07/2015 to 30/06/2019 the Administration costs have increased from $185.19 per property to $236.75 – an increase of $51.56 or 28% . 

There are approximately 40,000 properties which means we have paid over the last four years approximately. $2.062 extra in administration charges! This not surprising when the water fund is being milked by the general fund. It’s also possible that the 2019/20 costs will be even higher. (These should be available by April this year. )

What is even worse, is the administration costs for the old Greater Taree Council area were $206.50 in 2014/15 and they were $309.53 in 2018/19! An increase of $103.03 or 50%. 

It will be interesting to see the administrative costs for 2020/2021 when the travelling expenses for the staff travelling to Taree hit the Administrative charges.

When you add the new rate increases (unknown at this stage ) in the GTCC area due to the equalisation of rates across the whole of the council area, we could be in for a pretty rough year in the Manning area.

Just so it doesn’t come as any surprise.

(All of the above figures are taken from the published data on the Office of local  Government and Office of Water websites.)