You Are Here : Home / Property and rates/ Rates and charges / Rates explained / How your rates are spent

How your rates are spent

Council provides more than 50 services to 98,000 residents – all funded by rates, charges, fees, grants and loans.

Rates also pay for services and infrastructure for individual properties, such as water and sewerage.

How every $100 you pay in rates and annual charges is spent

	Sewer services	$20
	Roads, transport, drainage and flooding	$17
	Waste management and recycling	$16
	Administrative support services	$12
	Water supply (excluding water supply charges	$9
	Parks, sports fields, open space and aquatic centres	$8
	Community buildings, services, libraries, art and culture	$6
	Planning, building, compliance, and emergency management	$6
	Environment and sustainability	$3
	Customer service, community engagement, communications and civic services	$3
	Total	$100

Rates help to pay for your local services:

Waste collection, recycling and street cleaning
Water and wastewater treatment plants
Water reservoirs, mains and supply network including pumping stations
Wastewater pumping stations and mains
Local roads, bridges, footpaths, kerb and guttering, signage and drainage maintenance and cycleways
Parks, playgrounds, gardens, sports fields, aquatic facilities, skateparks and reserves
Libraries and a range of community services (for elderly and youth)
Community festivals arts and cultural assistance, and visitor information centre
Town planning, landscaping, development applications / building inspections / construction certificates
Ranger services, including dog control
Strategic planning for the future
Food shop inspections
Environmental management
Noxious weeds eradication
Community facilities
Services to the aged and youth
Bus shelters
Traffic management

Rates also help to pay for assets and facilities worth more than $3 billion: