Understanding rates

Council's income from rates forms the largest single portion of revenue, however, historically this has been less than 50% of the organisation's overall income.

Understanding how rates work and how are rates calculated can be quite confusing, however rates are determined in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993.

To help make it easier to understand rates, we've created the following video as part of our Demystifying Council series.

In Maitland, rates and charges make up about 50% of Council’s total income each year. And while rates collectively generates a significant amount of money for services and infrastructure, rates income can't cover everything. The balance of Council's income is made up of grant and development contribution funding, user fees and charges, as well as interest and investment revenue.

In June 2014, IPART approved Council's application for a Special Rate Variation, which means rates are able to be increased by 7.25% each year for seven years. This was done to help place Council in a more sustainable financial position.