Friday’s Stanthorpe Record contained an interesting article about the roads in Maryvale.  Elizabeth Vonheiff reports:

Council is proposing a plan to Maryvale in which their rates would rise by about $400 per year per property in order to fund one-half of $5 million worth of road-sealing works...  The higher rates would continue for 20 years on 288 current properties in Maryvale.

Ms Vonheiff rightly points out that:

If the residents of Maryvale accept Council’s plan of paying higher rates for 20 years to get the roads done quickly, the question becomes one of precedent for other areas of the shire.

Yes indeed!  For Emu Swamp Dam we have a scenario where ALL of the region’s ratepayers are looking at funding a minimum of $3.51 million upfront capital cost (which could be much higher with cost overruns), and a minimum of $233,140 per year in running costs, whether or not any water is taken from the dam.  As I pointed out last week, given that capital costs have increased by a whopping 250% Council should provide us with an update on these estimated annual costs.

If Council is going to start splitting costs across the region, and allocating them to just the relevant ratepayers, this is going to come as a rude shock to the ratepayers of Stanthorpe.  Would they really want to pay the full cost of Council’s risky foray into a private irrigation dam?  The ratepayers of Warwick, or indeed of Maryvale, could also be asking why they are funding a project for Stanthorpe that doesn’t even drought-proof their neighbour.  Given Emu Swamp Dam would have been dry in the last drought, what’s the point of this expensive exercise?

At least in the case of the Maryvale roads Council appears to be providing the residents with detailed information on the expected costs and its effect on rates.  As we’ve been asking for over a year now, Council should undertake an analysis of the impact that its Emu Swamp Dam investment will have on rates, and release this information to ratepayers.  The failure to do so only leads to suggestions that it’s not being done because the news is terrible.  The other major difference is that Maryvale residents will actually get some value out of their road upgrades.  I don’t think Stanthorpe residents will see any benefit at all from investment in this dam.