Drought-hit Wellington Shire farmer’s rates bill rises by almost $20,000
Just as Giffard farmer Trent Anderson’s property emerges from drought, the rates bill on his three Wellington Shire blocks has jumped from $34,000 last year to $53,400 for 2020-21. This is how the council justifies it.
GIPPSLAND farmers have been hit with massive rate rises as they emerge from three years of drought.
Giffard farmer Trent Anderson said the rates bill on his three blocks had jumped from $34,000 last year to $53,400 for 2020-21.
Wellington Shire Council collected $10.42 million from its farmers in 2019-20.
But this financial year the council has justified collecting almost $11.45 million in farm rates, on the back of a 15 per cent hike in rural property values.
In contrast Wellington Shire businesses, such as Sale’s Coles supermarket, will pay on average 5 per cent less in rates in 2020-21, as a result of their property values dropping by 0.5 per cent.
Mr Anderson said he was willing to accept that “perhaps” his properties had been a bit undervalued previously, but the shock of having to find an extra $20,000 this year was too much, given what he and other farmers had been through.
“Pre-drought, about five years ago, we were earning about $1.8 million to $1.9 million, gross revenue, but the drought cut that to under $1.2 million,” Mr Anderson said.
While the valuations are based on a relatively small subset of farms, Victorian Farmers Federation Gippsland branch president John Buxton said it was Wellington Shire that ultimately set the rate in the dollar for each sector.
“We have made pleas to set up a rural rates working group, to sort this out,” Mr Buxton said.
Wellington Shire mayor Alan Hall refused to discuss the council’s rate slug on farmers, stating all councillors were in “caretaker mode, so it’s inappropriate to comment”.
The Victorian Government’s “Fair Go Rates” system is meant to cap the overall 2020-21 rate rise to an average 2 per cent.
But councils, such as Wellington, Hume, Mitchell, Southern Grampians and the Pyrenees Shire have still been able to crank up farm rates by 8-14 per cent and stay within the average, by keeping increases for residential and town business at or below the cap.
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