By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG City Council’s rates system is here to stay.
The council will continue to use the Net Annual Value system when determining council rates after a review of the current rates system found it was the best method currently available.
The council set up a Rates System Review Group last year at the request of then mayor Sel Sanli to ensure that the rate burden is distributed as fairly as possible across the different rate payer and property groups throughout the municipality.
Six residents were part of the review group.
The group met three times earlier this year to consider the pros and cons of each rating method and found “changing the rating system would be no more than ‘tinkering at the edges’ and that other ways of providing rate relief … should be considered.”
This is the third rates review Maribyrnong City Council has had in the past decade. All three reviews have recommended retaining the Net Annual Value system.
Maribyrnong City Council hiked rates up by 5.5 per cent for this year’s budget, which will see it claim $65.1 million in residential, industrial and commercial rates – more than 68 per cent of the council’s total income.
Two per cent of the rate rise goes towards the council’s capital works and improvement program to address the council’s identified infrastructure renewal gap.
