Careful What You Wish For: Rate-Capping in Victorian Local Government

The new Victorian Government won the 2014 election on a platform to inter alia introduce a cap on council rates in all Victorian councils. This means that a rate-cap will be introduced beginning with the 2016/17 financial year, with future rises in rates pegged at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) after this date. This paper provides a comparative empirical analysis of New South Wales local government - the only Australian local government system to operate a rate-pegging regime - and Victorian local government with respect to rate-capping. We find evidence to support the proposition that rate-capping has deleterious effects on municipal revenue effort, equity, debt and infrastructure maintenance. Moreover, our findings do not provide empirical evidence in support of the claim that rate-capping increases municipal efficiency. The paper concludes by considering various alternative public policy instruments to rate-capping.