Local government representatives will meet in Brisbane today to plan their response to the state government's $85 per property ambulance levy.
The meeting, which will also include a telephone hook-up with local government representatives who could not travel to Brisbane, will discuss the inconsistencies in the government's plan.
Local Government Association of Queensland president Noel Playford says the levy has the potential to affect the funding arrangements of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
"There are significant concerns in rural and remote shires that the $85 per annum per property charge will cut community donations to the Royal Flying Doctor Service," Playford says.
"For a service depending on these for survival, the cuts could spell disaster.
"If the state government had bothered to consult, they would have found it was a dog's breakfast – a bad joke."
Playford says some property owners are facing multiple bills, including farmers, those who own more than one property and the levy being greater than rates in some small shires.
"Mackay City Council has oyster leases that will bear the ambulance charge," he says.
"Tiaro Shire has 750 vacant small forest lots, with no residents or dwellings – each attract the $85 per annum ambulance levy. Many councils have multiple tenancies on one assessment.
"There are eight small rural towns we know of where the minimum general rate is equal to or smaller than the ambulance levy.
"We also have countless examples of where one rural property straddles two or three shire boundaries."
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