This week, InSider watches a misinformation debate play out at Town Hall, tries to decipher if the SA Museum is really better off this budget cycle, and takes a ride down memory lane in a supercar.

If you’re a ratepayer in the City of Adelaide, then brace your letterboxes because it is by-election campaign season, and the mailers have begun.

Only three have trickled into InSider’s physical letterbox so far, but it’s early days. Just this week, InSider even discovered a press release from one candidate snuggled between CityMag’s on our newsstand!

But the letter that’s been the talk of the week is not by-election propaganda from council hopefuls. It’s a whopping six-page letter issued by a recurring character of InSider, councillor Henry Davis.

Published online on May 19 and hand-delivered through the city not long after, the seven-minute read claimed, “Adelaide faces a financial crisis”, a budget shortfall of $97.1 million and a need for a 27.8 per cent rate rise.

This is untrue, according to an independent report commissioned by the council.

Local government financial management firm LGiQ found the council does not face a financial crisis, does not require a 27.8 per cent rate rise and that Davis’ letter contains figures that are unsubstantiated.

InSider understands this is the first time a review of this kind – to debunk information distributed by an elected member – has been commissioned by the City of Adelaide.

So what did the unprecedented report find? Well, ratepayers can rest easy that there won’t be a 27.8 per cent rate rise, it’s actually an increase of 5.6 per cent (see, it could be worse!)

“Claims of a required 27.8 per cent increase are not substantiated by current budgets or financial policy, which remain focused on maintaining intergenerational equity,” the report read.

Davis’ letter also claimed the council needed to spend $4 million to “plug the operating deficit”.

The report found the budget achieves a surplus of $8.5 million, not an operating deficit.

Davis’ letter claimed the........

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