Rural council ups farmers’ rates after budget delay

Horsham Rural City Council has slugged farmers with a 16.45 per cent rate rise, after giving residents just five days to see the document.

A rural Victorian council has slugged its farmers with a 16.45 per cent rate rise, after giving residents just five days to see the document.

About 18 farmers attended Horsham Rural City Council’s Monday meeting, where it adopted its 2024-25 budget – the draft of which was only released last Thursday.

Councils are required to set their budgets by June 30 each year, but Horsham requested an extension until July 22. However, it’s understood that extension request was not formally granted.

The final budget included a 16.45 per cent total rate revenue rise from farm properties, to a total of $8.78m. Meanwhile, residential properties dropped 3.9 per cent, and culture and recreational land fell 6.25 per cent.

McKenzie Creek farmer Neville McIntyre said it was “typical of the current council”.

“There are now 10,000 houses, and farmers are paying 33 per cent of the (shire’s) rates,” he said.

“What really gripes everyone is they left it so late, then they didn’t release it to the public for comment.”

McKenzie Creek farmer Neville McIntyre says he is disappointed at his local council's 16.45 per cent total rate revenue rise from farm properties.

Councillor Penny Flynn noted she “kept hearing about our farmers”, and called for focus on other residents within the shire, including pensioners.

“I am seriously concerned that we never, ever give any time or air to people that live in town,” she said.

“I keep hearing about how well the farmers have done [the past two years].

“Now I’m hearing they’re having a bad year so all the things we do need to be reinvented to help them.”

Councillor Ian Ross said the region’s farmers were facing difficulties feeding livestock, and the budget fell short on funding for maintaining gravel roads.

“We cannot keep on doing this to rural people, it’s unsustainable,” he said.

Mayor Robyn Gulline said the budget was a complex document, and the community would have little influence if given the opportunity for consultation.

She said councillors debated the budget for two weeks.

“We debated dropping (the farm rates) but the majority of councillors were uncomfortable dropping it,” she said.

“I’m a farmer, I’ve just voted myself a rate rise.”

The councillors voted majority against the budget, before voting for a division of 3:5 which passed the document.

The VFF reported the top rate increases for farmers this financial year, which included 25.84pc at Moira, 15.91pc at Mildura and 14.38pc for Hume.

Council chief executive Sunil Bhalla said he believed the council had no consequences for breaching legislation with a delay, and the budget was “the best budget we could come up with”.

A council spokesman said the council engaged with the community about its Annual Action Plan, which “directly informs the budget”.