City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali has defended council’s move to lift rates by the maximum 3.5 per cent rate allowed, saying it is required to maintain the services and events residents expect.
Council voted in favour of a draft budget at its meeting on Tuesday, April 18 that would see rates rise by the maximum amount possible under the Victorian Government’s rate cap.
Only Cr Fern Summer voted against the proposal.
The increase follows two years of rate freezes.
Cr Sali said the increase was a balanced approach to meeting council’s financial needs while recognising the difficult financial times many in the community were experiencing.
“What the three-and-a-half per cent rate cap means to individual property owners is a small increase that can offer a lot of relief to council to be able to maintain key services,” he said.
“We speak about the likes of Aquamoves, we speak about the likes of our sporting stadiums, we speak about being able to maintain our sporting grounds to the quality that they are now.
“We want to continue to attract events, we want to have the Australian country hockey championships here, we want to be able to continue to invest into International Dairy Week, we want to continue to have our cultural festivals and we believe that the budget at the moment offers a really fair balance, as well as being able to deliver a $50 million-plus capital program as well.”
Cr Sali dismissed criticism from Cr Summer, who suggested council had not reduced its spending as much as it could in order to keep rates lower.
“You can’t cut them (services) back any more than what’s currently being done,” he said.
“Otherwise you effectively stop those services.
“We’ve had our biggest flood event in living memory that’s had a cost impact on us and we’re trying to balance all those aspects of it and deliver a capital program and the key events that people want.”
The 2023-24 budget will be considered for adoption at council’s June meeting after a period of community feedback.
The deadline for written submissions from the public is no later than 5pm on Thursday, May 18.
An additional council meeting may be organised, to hear any person wishing to support their written submission, at a future date.