BY JAMES TAYLOR<\/p>\n
THE Surf Coast Shire has temporarily reduced rates in two categories in its final 2025-26 Budget and 2025-29 Revenue and Rating Plan in an attempt to ease the financial burden on drought-affected farmers and commercial\/industrial ratepayers.<\/p>\n
Councillors adopted the final version of both documents at their meeting on Tuesday this week, following consideration of community feedback.<\/p>\n
Under the changes, the Farm Rate Land differential will be reduced from 75 per cent to 64 per cent for 2025-26, which will effectively freeze the average rates for farm land at 2024-25 levels.<\/p>\n
The Commercial\/Industrial Rate Land differential will also be reduced from 190 per cent to 165 per cent for 2025-26.<\/p>\n
Shire mayor Mike Bodsworth said the changes were about recognising the challenging economic landscape being faced by farmers and
\nother businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers have had an extremely difficult year due to the drought, and freezing rates for farm land at 2024-25 levels is one step we can take to ease financial pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also felt it was important to acknowledge that the drought has had flow-on impacts to other businesses in the shire, who were already feeling the effects of wider cost of living pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdjusting the rating differential for commercial and industrial ratepayers is a way we can help in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the release of the draft budget, the shire\u2019s forecast income for 2025-26 has increased by $125,000 thanks to higher than expected Victorian Government grants
\ncommission funding.<\/p>\n
Councillors voted to allocate this funding toward additional resourcing in civil operations, to help maintain assets such as roads and footpaths to a high standard; and put an extra $10,000 to support community houses, increasing the annual allocation per community house from $6,000 to $8,000.<\/p>\n
The final budget forecasts an operating result (Unallocated Cash Surplus) of $2.1 million. The shire says this surplus will be essential in helping fund the renewal of roads, buildings and other assets as they decline over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
The capital works program is valued at $52.65 million and takes into account existing multi-year projects and new projects for 2025-26. This figure includes projects funded with the assistance of the state and federal governments such as the Wurdi Baierr Aquatic and Recreation Centre in Torquay.<\/p>\n
New capital works projects for 2025-26 include:<\/p>\n