A square deal? Mining costs, mining royalties and local government in New South Wales, Australia

Joseph Drew, Brian Dollery () and Boyd Blackwell

Resources Policy, 2018, vol. 55, issue C, 113-122

Abstract: Mining operations are often controversial since they can impose significant external costs on the local municipalities and local inhabitants. Under current legislative arrangements in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, local governments are constrained from recouping costs directly from mines by means of increased property taxes on mines due to state-wide limitations on tax increases – known colloquially as the ‘rate-cap’. Moreover, mining royalties are paid directly to the NSW government and not to affected councils. In this paper, set against the background of mining activities in NSW, we estimate the magnitude of costs imposed by mining operations on rural and regional local authorities. We then offer alternative public policy solutions which would enable affected municipalities to recoup some or all of the cost burden placed on them by mining operations in their respective local government areas.

Keywords: Mining costs; Local government; Municipal revenue; Property taxes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420717302027
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:55:y:2018:i:c:p:113-122

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.11.004

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().