by Kerry Larsen

Do you wonder where your hard-earned dollars go to every time you pay your rates?

After a large proportion of Douglas ratepayers were issued with notices advising their land values fell earlier this year, it is expected many ratepayers will see some relief when they next see a rates notice in the mail.

Last week’s Cairns Regional Council budget showed that overall, rates will rise 3.4% across the Cairns region.

That’s slightly lower than the rate of inflation and well below the 7.5% recommended by the Local Government Association of Queensland (see The Newsport’s article “Rate cuts expected in tight budget” Friday July 1).

To help explain where your rates go to, Cairns Regional Council has provided a scale explaining how your money is spent.

For every $100 in expenditure, Council delivers the following services:

•    $35.06 in capital works projects ;
•    $25.98 on environment, water and waste management;
•    $18.10 on transport, drainage and city maintenance;
•    $5.54 on community, health and safety services;
•    $4.31 on parks and recreational facilities;
•    $4.08 on administration and governance;
•    $2.26 on culture, arts events and civic centres;
•    $1.55 on libraries;
•    $1.42 on planning and building;
•    $1.05 on communications and customer services;
•    $0.65 on economic development.