WHOEVER forms the new Maranoa Regional Council will be taking a much smaller payslip home thanks to a decision by the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal.

Maranoa Regional Council, along with four other councils have been placed in a lower pay bracket - with mayors from these councils going from $120,226 to $114,966.

Similarly, the deputy mayor will drop from $75,141 to $68,980 ($6161) and councillors will fall from $63,870 to $57,483.

The move was based upon a number of factors, including the number of councillors, how many ratepayers there were in the area and the cost per ratepayer.

But according to Tribunal chairperson Col Meng, economic circumstances were also accounted for.

"What we do every four years is look right across the 70-odd councils and assess the number of ratepayers and look at dollars per ratepayer, the area of the council and then characterise them," he said.

"Maranoa went to the new Level 2 and we would've assessed the income per councillors, the number of councillors they have and determined remuneration.

"We thought they were in a too high a category.

"The economy of the area comes into play, especially if it's not doing too well."

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