At its June meeting on Wednesday, councillors chose to adopt the Budget with the alteration that the farm rate differential would increase from 23 per cent to 28 per cent.

The decision was made after council received a written submission from resident David Sudholz who “strongly objected” to the proposed increases in the draft Budget.

“The budget states that farm valuations have increased by 16.93 per cent and the rate in the dollar applied to Capital Improved Value has increased by 2.25 per cent, which means an average rate increase of 19.18 per cent,” his submission read.

“However, the rate increase in the Murtoa area is much higher because the valuation of my farm as increased by 41.5 per cent, and with the 2.25 per cent increase in the rate in the dollar applied to CIV, my rates will rise by 43.75 per cent.

“This rise in my rates is unfair and unjustified, and the Shire needs to address this problem.”

Council’s acting chief executive officer James Magee said council had completed some further investigations into land valuations to make its decision.

“Overall, there was a 16 per cent increase in rural land valuations; if we didn’t move to increase the differential rate, there would have been a greater impact on rural areas,” he said.

“We want to remind landowners who believe their rates have gone up to a level that’s not realistic that they have the ability to object.

“We have played around with the differential and this is a result that we see as fair as we can have with the system we’ve got.”

As drafted in the Budget, farm rates will increase by 2.25 per cent across the board. Commercial rates will increase by an average of 3.7 per cent, while residential rates will rise by 2.05 per cent.

Mayor Graeme Massey said he thought the changes to the Budget were justified.

“The rates system is flawed and no one can come up with a system that will achieve the result we really want,” he said.

“That is, fair and equitable distribution for all our residents regardless of whether they have a house or a block of land or a farm.

“Our Shire is unique because more than 70 per cent of our rates come from the farming community. We’ve done the best we can given the circumstances.”

Victorian Farmers Federation Wimmera branch president and Wallup farmer Daniel Keam said council’s choices were a step in the right direction.

“It’s a small but great step ahead and fantastic news for the agriculture community,” he said.

“It’s really great to see that Buloke, Northern Grampians and now Yarriambiack councils have done the right thing by farmers.

“Now the pressure is on for Horsham Council to come up with a better proposal.

“This is an election year and both parties know that the system is flawed and we have to fix it.”

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