Some councils have done a very poor job in maintaining their pipes. For a council at its debt limit, making up for deferred maintenance, or laying out new pipes to enable more apartments, townhouses, and subdivisions, can be difficult. If debt cannot exceed 280% of revenues, and council is at its limit, it cannot borrow more than 2.8 times the revenue that the infrastructure supports.
Effectively, infrastructure that will last for decades has to pay itself off in under three years through a combination of developer contributions and new rates or user fees.
It makes no sense.
