Excuses are laughable

Farmers have asked me to explain in farm lingo what is happening with this year’s Horsham Rural City Council rates.

Council intends to transfer $1 million in rates off the general sector and add it onto the farm rate base.

This extra $1 million in rates will then have to be paid this year, next year and every other year after that to provide this $1 million rate subsidy to the residential sector. 

Council then intends to give the rate base of the residential sector a $591,000 reduction, meaning that each and every year as their rates start at $600,000 behind each year they will never pay another rate increase.

As council will never receive the $400,000 as a normal rate increase from residential, this year they added to the $600,000 reduction meaning a $1-million rates reduction for the residential sector – all paid for by the farmers.  

Farmers if battle drums are not already calling then listen to the projected rate increase of $750,000 next year and we will be paying every cent of that increase plus give council $250,000 of rates to play with.

Put into perspective in five years farmers will pay an extra $5 million in rates, plus their normal yearly increases where the residential sector would have been given a $3-million rate subsidy, plus starting $600,000 behind each year what they should be paying will have no effective rate increase at all.

The worst is, when the budget was not released in May, it started to smell, and with the non-deadline release in June the Budget stank.

Everyone asked what are they hiding?

All through July with huge rate transfer leaks everyone was getting their backs up but still no confirmation of the Budget.  

Then on July 18, the hidden agenda with this massive farm rate rise was released, even worse than rumoured.

A $1.241-million farm rate increase to cover the $591,000 residential rate reduction plus there no rate increase.  

Farmers, we now know why the budget was not released on time.  

They have tried to avoid protests, legal action and to stop farmers petitioning or meeting with the Local Government Minister and the Valuer General about not accepting this Budget.

Farmers remember we participated in and the council adopted the current rate review strategy and differential trigger proposal so such rate discrepancies cannot ever happen again?

Neville McIntyre,

McKenzie Creek

The entire July 31, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!