Farmers, council continue to clash over category 9 rates after 2021-22 budget

Group of farmers galled by rates decision point to rises in city real estate prices: “interested to see if council game enough to not adjust the cents in the dollar on residential properties when the valuer general does his reassessment”.

The adoption of the 2021-22 Bundaberg Regional Council budget and rates has cultivated further unrest among some in the local agricultural community.

While members of a farming consortium remain frustrated with the Bundaberg Regional Council’s decisions surrounding agricultural rates, council has clarified comments about a “special deal” for Canegrowers that was considered but denied.

The consortium was established last year following the 2020-21 council budget with representatives from Bundaberg Canegrowers, Canegrowers Isis, Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers and AgForce speaking out against their rates.

This year’s rate in the dollar for agricultural land in category 9 is 1.4344 and there is no valuation scheduled in the Bundaberg region for 2021.

As previously reported, the council’s finance portfolio spokesman Cr Steve Cooper said the 2021-22 budget was fair for all ratepayers.

“We considered representations from Dean Cayley and Tom Marland to give Canegrowers a $2.6m special deal but felt this would have been unfair to all other ratepayer categories, specifically residential ratepayers, mums and dads, pensioners and small business operators whose valuations didn’t increase last year,” he said.

“The median change in rural land value in the Bundaberg region last year was 46.6 per cent across 1791 properties.

“The change in median land value across 28,062 residential properties was 0.9 per cent.

“If non-agricultural ratepayer who didn’t have the benefit of increased equity were left to pick up this bill it would have been an increase of about $59 per household, or an additional 1.75 per cent general rate increase.”

Peter McLennan from Canegrowers Isis said, “we don’t think there is anything special about requesting that councillors do their jobs properly”.

While Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Joe Lyons said he wasn’t sure why Canegrowers were “targeted”.

He said all farming groups in the Bundaberg region were resolute about the “unjustified increases to Category 9 ratepayers”.

Cr Cooper said a QEAS report commissioned by Canegrowers found that Bundaberg Regional Council was middle of the road compared with other local governments.

“The report confirms we reduced the rate in the dollar for cane farms,” he said.

Cr Cooper told the NewsMail, the rate in the dollar was calculated using the same method that has been used consistently over a long period of time and was the same method used for all ratepayers.

He further elaborated on what was meant by the “special deal”.

“The consortium has continually requested to have the valuation rate reversed and that comes at a cost of $2.6 million,” he said.

“The reference to $2.6 million refers to all ratepayers in the agricultural category.

“Canegrowers were mentioned as the comment was made in response to the QEAS report commissioned by Canegrowers.

“The terminology used was kept consistent with that of the report.”

During the council budget meeting Cr Barnes expressed his concern for the agricultural sector, particularly those in category 9, stating his disbelief that this budget had “fully compensated” those who had significant rate rises from land valuations.

AgForce’s Tom Marland said with house prices increasing in Bundaberg and Bargara during COVID it would be interesting to see if the council were “game enough to not adjust the cents in the dollar on residential properties when the valuer general does his reassessment”.

Bundaberg Canegrowers Dean Cayley said “rather than having a few thousand farmers and council workers knocking at their doors they might see a few more Bundaberg residents realising that this council is out of control with their spending and fiscal mismanagement”.

Last year the rate in the dollar for category 9 agriculture land was 1.4077, which, on top of increases to land valuations meant some farmers had significantly greater rates to pay.

General rates are calculated by multiplying the rateable value of a property by the category’s cents in the dollar rate and despite the consortium’s concerted public call for their rates to be changed, they remained the same.

The council CEO Steve Johnston has said the council complied with all State Government legislation and regulations in setting the budget.

A Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy spokesperson previously said 68 objections were received from 1800 rural land valuations issued in 2020 for the Bundaberg Regional Council area.

The NewsMail understands all 68 objections were assessed and 34 objections were upheld and reduced land valuations were reissued.

The majority of objections centred around the significant increases in values since 2017, comparisons with the valuations of other farming properties and diminished productivity of the land.

The spokesperson said rural land values in the Bundaberg Regional Council area increased by 46.6 per cent in 2020 due to a strong demand for both small and larger size rural properties.

“The ongoing demand for horticultural land suitable for small crops and tree crops has been a contributing factor to the increase in rural land values in Bundaberg Regional Council area,” the spokesperson said.