Motorists pay for councils' rate losses

Sydney drivers with more parking tickets on their windshields lately may not have only themselves to blame. Cash-strapped councils are increasingly relying on parking fees and fines, developer charges and other sources of revenue to fill their coffers as rate-pegging limits the amount they can charge the old-fashioned way. Rates have plummeted as a proportion of council income in the past decade, a Herald analysis of council financial data reveals.

One of the most dramatic falls is in Waverley, where rates in the council area - which takes in Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches - fell from more than half of revenue (55 per cent) in 1997-98 to less than a third (29 per cent) in 2007-08. The Mayor of Waverley, Sally Betts, said rate-pegging, where the State Government limits the amount by which councils can increase their annual rates, had forced councils to search for money elsewhere.