Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis had a major numbers fumble on live radio today, underestimating percentage increases in people’s emergency services levy bills.
The bills were mailed out yesterday.
Koutsantonis told listeners to 891ABC’s breakfast program that the “average increase” in emergency service levy bills would be around 62 per cent.
He also chided radio presenter Matt Abraham for saying some bills would jump by 300 per cent – only to hear from a school that theirs had gone up by 470 per cent.
The average bill prior to removal of discounts and remissions in the June State Budget was $92.
The Budget figures show it increases to $241 – a 163 per cent increase.
When confronted with the higher percentage figure by Opposition Leader Steven Marshall, the Treasurer said “no that’s wrong”, sticking to his calculation of 62 per cent.
Listeners then phoned in with their own calculations, having received their bills yesterday – the increases were all above 160 per cent.
“I don’t have the percentage figure,” Koutsantonis then said, while conceding the increases “are large”.
“I just have the hard numbers.”
A spokesperson for private schools then phoned in with details of levy bills that showed increases of almost 500 per cent.
“I’m receiving information from schools whose bills have gone up by 400 to 500 per cent,” Independent Schools Association spokesperson Carolyn Grantskalns told 891ABC breakfast.
“For example we have a school in the northern suburbs, their bill last year was $6,870, this year it’s $33,359.
“Most schools are experiencing increases of that kind of percentage. If you think about a school, a school generally sits on a fairly large block of land because you need ovals for children to run on, and because the land is valued according to its size not it’s purpose and Emergency Services Levies are about the value of the land you sit on, it has had a huge impact on schools.”
The Treasurer asked her to send the bills to the Commissioner for Taxes to be reviewed.
“What I would recommend that independent schools do is send that bill in to the Tax Commissioner and ask it to be verified.”
Budget figures show the increase in levy bills will raise $357 million over the next four years.
Increases for households range from 162 per cent for the average priced house ($400,000) to 242 per cent for houses valued at $1 million.
“The larger your house, the larger you emergency service needs are likely to be,” Koutsantonis said.
“People that have a more expensive house have a greater capacity to pay.”
Marshall said “we have a Treasurer who can’t do basic numbers”.
“If you’ve got a $400,000 house it is an increase from $92 to $241, that’s a 163 per cent increase and it just goes up,” he said.
“That’s at the lower end of the scale. If you’ve got a $500,000 property well guess what, it’s going to go up by 183 per cent, a $750,000 house up by 219 per cent and a million dollar property up by 242 per cent.
“It’s going to hit every single household and every single business in South Australia at a time when our taxes are already the highest in the nation.”
The Treasurer also confirmed that the additional $357 million raised would not go to emergency services.
“What we’re doing is remove the discounts on the ESL and that money will go into spending on health and education …
“I have been completely honest about those figures.”
On that score, he’s correct: explanatory releases that accompanied the State Budget on June 19 stated that “for the median household in metropolitan Adelaide this increase will equate to about $150 dollars”. Percentage calculations weren’t mentioned in the releases.
