Potential change to how Council’s rates and revenue are collected

Published on 28 February 2025

Mildura Rural City Council residents are being asked to provide feedback on proposed changes to Council’s Revenue and Rating plan, which is aimed at ensuring rates are collected as fairly and equitably as possible across the community.

Mildura Mayor Helen Healy said the Revenue and Rating Plan determines the percentage of rates collected through each of the different property types in our municipality, taking in residential, farming and business properties.

She said each Council was required to review its Revenue and Rating Plan every four years, stressing that any changes to come out of the review wouldn’t alter the total value of rates collected.

Council engaged industry experts, the AEC Group, to conduct an independent review of the organisation’s rating structure to determine if changes were required.

Following an exhaustive amount of research, including benchmarking with other Local Government areas and looking at four possible scenarios, the AEC Group recommended one change to the current plan – increasing the business differential rate by 10%.

This would result in the following differential rates for the three land categories:

Residential: 100% (no change)
Farming: 90% (no change)
Business: 140% (10% increase)

Cr Healy said the change was recommended to ensure the fairest possible distribution of the rating load.

“Rather than changing how much funding is generated through rates, this is about determining how the ‘rating pie’ is divided between the different property types,” the Mayor said.

“Importantly, one of the overarching principles applied as part of the review process is ensuring no single property type is unfairly burdened based on that category’s ability to pay.”

Under the current Revenue and Rating Plan (before the review), residential properties contribute 60.8% of general rates, farming properties 20.3% and business properties 18.9%.

This represents a slight imbalance compared to our preferred benchmark for equitable distribution of the rating load, which is a 60%-20%-20% split between the three categories.

“The change recommended by the AEC group aims to restore the balance and will mean a slight increase for business property owners and a slight reduction for farming property owners,” Cr Healy said.

The Mayor said that while the AEC group recommended one of the four scenarios, all scenarios are available for residents to view in the report.

Cr Healy said that while it was understandable that some business property owners would be disappointed by the recommendation, benchmarking as part of the exhaustive review process showed that the business differential for the Mildura Local Government area would be still well below some municipalities.

Examples include Bendigo at 185% and Shepparton at 205%, compared to Mildura’s 140%.

The community can view the AEC report and provide their feedback at https://yoursay.mildura.vic.gov.au/RatingPlan25-29 , by emailing mrcc@mildura.vic.gov.au or by post at PO Box 105 Mildura. Victoria. 3502. Feedback can be provide until 28 March 2025.

ENDS