A NEW rate pegging method, tied to population changes, means Albury, Federation and Greater Hume councils do not have a uniform revenue cap for 2022-23.
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The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) on Monday revealed its rate peg figures for councils across NSW.
Under its fresh system, the amount of rates income in each municipality is linked to population growth.
Those with a zero population factor have the floor peg of 0.7 per cent and 5 per cent is the highest rise.
Greater Hume is in the 0.7 category, but Albury and Federation have pegs of 1.1 and 1.6 respectively.
Berrigan has a mark of 0.9, while other Riverina councils, Edward River, Lockhart, Snowy Valleys and Wagga, are all 0.7.
Greater Hume mayor Heather Wilton reserved her judgement on the new set-up but expressed surprise at Federation's mark.
"I can understand Albury being higher than us, but as far as Federation goes there's not that much difference in population," Cr Wilton said.
"It will be very interesting to see what we end up with and what the bottom line will be."
Federation mayor Pat Bourke welcomed the extra capacity for revenue raising.
"This will give us an opportunity to do more and get our road structures up to date," he said before adding he would like government aid to councils based on gross domestic product.
Cr Bourke cited the boon of grain and livestock but its impact on roads via trucks.
IPART chair Carmel Donnelly said the new pegging method balanced council viability against ratepayers being hit with excessive rises.
The population figures being used by IPART come from Australian Bureau of Statistics data from mid-2020 so do not account for much of the COVID tree changing and property boom of recent times.
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