Cr Bill McArthur, Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) President said the growing impost of hidden state taxes was an untenable burden on ratepayers, and was particularly disappointing given the Government’s Families Statement which was strongly sympathetic towards household budget pressures.
"The $43 million landfill levy cash grab was buried in Budget Papers yesterday. As a result, councils will now be expected to impose an additional $11.9 million in state taxes through rates notices this year, but the Government hasn’t yet informed local government directly.
"Extensive budgetary preparations have already been undertaken by councils and there was no concern given to how this increase would impact on council budget cycles and subsequent rate increases.
"The additional imposition of municipal landfill levies beyond what councils expected will be passed on to ratepayers through garbage charges for kerbside collection services and gate fees to dispose of waste.
"Some municipalities will need to raise up to an additional $500 000 this year, and there will be a disproportionately higher impact on smaller rural communities with fewer ratepayers to share the burden.
"This is a blow to struggling families and the MAV is calling on all councils to identify hidden State levies separately on rates notices. Communities deserve to know that an increasing portion of their rates bill is being re-directed away from municipal services and local infrastructure needs," he said.
Local government is responsible for domestic waste management services including transfer stations and landfills, kerbside recycling, green and hard waste collections, waste education and litter prevention.
The State will bring forward by one year the progressive increase in waste levies introduced by the former Government in 2010. Melbourne municipal landfill levies were due to increase from $30 to $40 per tonne this year but will now rise to $44, while rural levies will increase to $22 instead of $20 a tonne, up from $15 in 2010.
Cr McArthur said that as well as hitting communities hard, it was unclear if any of the $43 million extra it delivered to the Government over the coming four years would be reinvested into local waste management and resource recovery initiatives.
"When the Brumby Government struck these increases to help boost recycling rates and reduce waste going to landfill, it only agreed to direct $54 million of the estimated $200 million it would net towards waste management.
"The remaining $146 million was allocated to general environment initiatives administered by Sustainability Victoria through the Sustainability Fund.
"The MAV calls on the Government to explain where the community benefit is and come clean about how it intends to use this tax windfall," he said.
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Contact MAV President, Cr Bill McArthur on 0437 984 793 or MAV Communications on 03 9667 5521.