Andrew Barr's third budget as Chief Minister and sixth as Treasurer, delivered on Tuesday, presented a ho-hum, steady-as-she-goes outlook for the coming financial year.
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Ho-hum in the sense that Canberrans are increasingly asked to pay higher rates and charges each budget. With stagnant wages growth, rapid increases in house prices and utility bills, there's little denying that for many residents, this city is getting harder to afford to live in. Many of these costs are beyond the control of the ACT Government.
But rates, driver's licence charges, parking fees, motor vehicle registration, the fire and emergency services safety levy – all will cost more in 2017-18.
The latest budget papers didn't fail to cite that hoary old statistic that Canberrans are the highest-paid in the country – the 2011 census said median weekly household income for ACT families with children was $3060 while, for the rest of Australia, it was $2310. That will be cold comfort for those who haven't seen a pay rise in years - like thousands of federal public servants.
We all know incomes in Canberra are skewed by the presence of larger pay packets for some public servants who earn considerably more than the average Australian. Many households have two people earning those relatively high incomes.
Beneath the statistics, people are working hard to keep their heads above water, to afford basic expenses – forget about luxuries.
And, in that sense, this week's budget didn't disappoint: there were the higher taxes. Again.
It's a reality of life in the ACT that these increases will continue to rise so as to fund our schools, hospitals, police and the other necessities in the beautiful bush capital.
The government says it expects to raise $1.8 billion in "own-source taxation revenue" in 2017-18, up from $1.7 billion this year. The ACT expects to make an extra $28.4 million in the year from goods and services it "sells", including things like driver's licences. Some of that growth comes from the growing population, but Canberrans will also be slugged an extra $75.4 million in taxes and fees in one year.
Rate increases are significant. Average rates increase by 7 per cent for houses and 20 per cent for units. Not only that, the discount for those ratepayers who pay the entire rates bill on time drops from 3 per cent to a barely worth it 1 per cent. That works out to an average saving for the ratepayer who pays in full rather than by instalments to a paltry $22.95. That seems a particularly mean cash grab.
The fire safety levy increases by $42 in a year to $294. Car registration fees increase by 5 per cent. Parking fines will increase by 6 per cent.
The budget papers also make it clear the government "provides a wide range of concessions" for anything from rates to driver's licence costs. Yet those sources of relief are likely to miss the average worker, who makes enough to be slugged the extra charges but too much to qualify for a concession.
Opposition Leader Alistair Coe says some Canberrans "will need to go into survival mode as a result of this budget". At the very least, Canberrans will be tightening their belts, again.
