Moama’s Brian Guille's rates have risen by 40 per cent and said his requests for further explanation had fallen on deaf ears.
Council's new rating structure will see Mr Guille pay $975.74 in 2020/21, compared to $694.14 the year before.
It comes after his rates increased by just 2.73 per cent between 2018/19 to 2019/20.
“Some people will get a shock when they get their rate notice,” he said.
“I object to the way they’ve gone about it, it’s a substantial impost on ratepayers."
Murray River Council director of corporate services Ross Mallett said harmonisation had to be done.
“We’ve got the same ad valorem and base rate applied right across the footprint so it is quite equitable,” he said.
“It means the main determinant for rates is your land value, so if you’ve got a high land value you’re likely to have a proportionately higher rate.”
Mr Mallett said there would be some winners and some losers under the new rate structure.
“The people who are most negatively affected by the rates harmonisation are those in the east who had a significant uplift in their land values,” he said.
Last year the NSW Government offered to extend the rate freeze for amalgamated councils by an extra year, meaning Murray River Council could have delayed the increase until 2021/22.
Something Cr Thomas Weyrich said should have happened.
“They could have put it off for 12 months, and given the coronavirus situation I would’ve thought it would be beneficial to defer it for a year,” he said.
But Mr Mallett said the inequity in the rating of the two former shire areas was “a compelling reason for introducing a simpler and fairer structure across council” this year.
“You’ve got to remember people in the west have been copping it in the neck on rates since amalgamation for the past four years,” Mr Mallett said.
“They’ve been paying maybe a third more than those in the east – do you ask them to take the pain for another year?”
The former Murray Shire has a 75 per cent larger population base and 103 per cent greater land value, but ratepayers were paying 40 per cent less in rates than Wakool.
Farmers in Wakool were paying 50 per cent more and businesses 20 per cent, but the residential rate was 24 per cent less than the former Murray Shire.
Mr Mallett said anyone struggling to pay rates could access the council’s rates and charges hardship policy.
“We’re providing a mechanism for those who feel they’re particularly hard done by because of harmonisation or if they’re going through a particularly difficult period because of COVID-19 or the drought,” he said.
Cr Weyrich said traditionally rates in the former Murray Shire had increased by two to three per cent each year.
“People weren’t told this was going to happen because of amalgamation, and they’re outraged by a 24 per cent increase in one hit,” he said.
“I was always against amalgamation and this is what you get,” he said.
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