By Tania Martin
YARRA Ranges Council has blamed the State Government for its 7.65 per cent rates rise following the release of its 2010-11 draft budget.
The rates increase will cost households an average of $2.04 extra a week.
Ratepayers in the neighbouring shire of Maroondah will see a 9.8 per cent increase and Knox gets a 7.82 per cent rise.
Yarra Ranges has blamed the rise on the State Government shifting its costs on to local governments.
Lyster Ward councillor Samantha Dunn last week hit out at the State Government saying an 11th hour landfill fill levy had accounted for .07 per cent of the rates rise.
“This works out to be $582,000 more we had to find from our ratepayers to cover the landfill levy increases,” she said.
In April the Government announced the move to increase the landfill level by more than 233 per cent.
The increase would see fees rise from $9 to $30 per tonne on rubbish dumped at landfill sites across Victoria.
A State Government spokesman has defended the move saying the landfill levy increase were supposed to be passed on to households by local government through their rates bills.
“The Government has worked hard to ensure the impact on households is minimised… the increase will result in a very small increase in council rates in the order of 20 cents in the first year,” the spokesman said. Cr Dunn said the State Government had also shifted the cost of bushfire preparation on to local government and that this had led to an extra 0.9 per cent rates rise. The council has allocated an extra $730,000 for bushfire protection in its draft budget.
Corporate director Rebecca McKenzie said the council had several proposed Neighbourhood Safer Places (NSPs) which are ready to be approved but the council didn’t believe it was fair to burden ratepayers with the associated costs.
Cr Dunn said the State Government’s $500,000 allocation for NSPs for the whole state could have been used in the Yarra Ranges alone.
Chandler Ward’s Cr Graham Warren said the cash handed out for NSPs was ‘laughable’. “We’ve done the best we can and I’m proud of what we’ve come up with,” he said.
But the State Government spokesman said more than $1 billion had been spent on bushfire and recovery since the Black Saturday fires.
“We will continue to work with local governments and the community, and await the final report of the royal commission which will inform the next phase of bushfire related initiatives.”
The budget is now available for community consultation and is due to be approved by councillors at their meeting on 29 June.
• Shire’s $38m capital works plan, page 5.
