Mount Alexander Shire rate hike off table, councillors told

Council staff previously floated a proposal to raise commercial rates to 150 per cent of those paid by general property owners.

Businesses already pay 130 per cent of general rates, with homeowners and farmers paying less on the assumption they are asset rich but cash poor.

The idea has now been dropped from a draft ratings strategy councillors will vote on when they meet on Tuesday, and which is expected to shape its budget until 2027.

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The change was made to acknowledge "the challenging operating circumstances and uncertainties that certain sectors of the business community have recently experienced, and will continue to experience," shire officers told councillors in a report ahead of the meeting.

Council officers have recommended councillors force short-term accommodation providers to pay commercial property rates despite some opposition.

Currently, many people renting out properties to tourists pay the same rates as the general population.

The arrangements proved popular with 85 per cent of respondents in an online shire poll earlier this year, who answered yes when asked "do you think residential houses that regularly also function as tourism accommodation should pay the same as other residential houses?"

Shire officers say it leaves motels and other "traditional" accommodation providers at an unfair disadvantage.

Officers have also recommended councillors drop the rates farmers pay to 80 per cent the general population's. That would bring them in line with a land management rate for certain properties 20 hectares or larger.

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