Macedon Ranges Shire draft budget includes higher rates, charges for rubbish

Councillors will decide whether to release a draft 2020/21 budget for community consultation this Wednesday.

They have been told the average rate rise will be within a two per cent rate cap imposed by the Victorian government last December.

The two per cent cap covers rates across the shire.

"Rate movements for individual properties are not capped," shire officers have told councillors in a report ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

Agricultural property owners would be charged 20 per cent less than the general rate. Businesses would be charged 20 per cent more.

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Most people would also pay around five per cent more for kerbside rubbish collections.

Council officers say that is because of changes to the recycling industry after it was thrown into chaos by the closure of a SKM Recycling processor.

"These changes resulted in a higher cost of the service, however, the cost increase would have been even higher again if Council did not make changes to the kerbside service in 2019/20," they said.

Those changes have included the introduction of new glass-only bins.

The draft budget will include more than $1 million dollars to help a growing list of community members suffering financially during the pandemic.

The money would be used for business counselling and support, online workshops and to waive fees for local traders.

People will be able to defer late fees on overdue animal registrations.

The council will back groups working with those hit by COVID-19 aftershocks at places like Cobaw Community Health and Central Victoria Volunteer Network.

It remains unclear how the council will be affected by COVID-19 next financial year.

The council expects to have less money available because so many people are struggling financially.

It also expects to bring in less lease revenue.

But it expects state and federal grant money to remain largely unchanged.

The council wrote its latest budget draft assuming all council facilities will be back up and running in July.

A number of facilities including aquatic and leisure centres remain partially or fully closed.

The full hit of those closures is only now being felt, according to separate report tracking budget between last January and the end of March.

In that period, the council was $300,000 up on where it expected to be by 31 March, that report stated.

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