Ararat ratepayers might avoid rate rise pain, with Ararat Rural City council voting for rates to remain static.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In the council’s draft 2018/19 budget, which was presented at Tuesday’s special council meeting, councillors voted 5-1 in favour of adding a clause which said the city would not raise rates for the next financial year.
But the document projects council will be operating on a overall deficit of $2.53 million for the year.
The document outlined $6.33 million in capital works, with $3.73 million for roads, including reconstructions, resealing and bridge improvements.
Acting mayor Gwenda Allgood said the motivation behind the rate freeze was to give back to ratepayers following the sale of blocks on the Caledonian Estate, and also to provide some relief for farmers.
“We had a fair bit of money in reserve, the feeling of most of the councillors was they wanted to give it back to the people that had earned that money we used for the estate,” she said.
“For farmers the actual costing of their land valuations have gone up 25 per cent this year, which were a bit concerned about, so we thought we’d look at what we could do to assist.”
Councillor Peter Beales stated at the May 8 meeting that there was a public view the council had “champagne tastes”, and council’s reserves would cover the $350,000 lost by not pushing for a 2.25 per cent rate rise.
Councillor Darren Ford, who resigned from council on Wednesday, was the only councillor opposing the rate rise freeze in the draft.
The draft budget will now be put on public exhibition, with ratepayers able to make submissions about spending until June 8. The final version will be presented at the June 26 council meeting.
While rates will potentially remain the same, residents will be slugged with an increase in their waste and recycling levies.
The budget states residents can expect to pay an extra $35 for recycling collection, which is an 29 per cent increase per property. General waste collection will increase by two per cent for 2018/19.
Increased waste costs have hit councils across Australia, following China’s refusal of purchasing and processing Australian recycling material from January 1.
Ararat Rural City CEO Allan Bawden told the meeting the increase in the municipality’s recycling levy had been “occasioned by the collapse of the international market of recyclables”.
