VETERAN Loddon Shire councillor Gavan Holt fears council will be blamed for the State Government’s latest tax grab.
Councils will be forced to collect the new emergency services levy that will double the hit of the tax replacing the fire services levy.
“All people see is the bottom line on their rate notices,” Cr Holt has said.
The new levy will fund government agencies including core services of OOO, the State Control Centre, Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Emergency Recovery Victoria. The old fire service levy had been used for the Country Fire Authority and Fire Rescue Victoria.
State Emergency Service will also be funded through the new levy. The SES and CFA are the only volunteer-based groups to be funded through the new levy.
Cr Holt has told a Loddon Shire Council meeting he was concerned about the increased cost to Loddon communities. “This increased levy will appear on our rate notices,” he said.
“People only read the bottom ... the detail doesn’t seem to matter.  To some extent we wear the criticism and that is a concern for us.”
Rural councils are under increasing financial pressure and have experienced year-on-year decline in resident satisfaction surveys.
A State Parliament inquiry late last year handed down its report on cost shifting by the Government which is yet to respond to findings and recommendations that called for an audit of councils picking up the tab for government services. Councillors have told the Loddon Herald that the emergency services levy hike from 8.7 per cent to 17.3 per cent and adding $2.1 billion to state coffers risked ratepayers blaming council for the jump in rates.The emergency services levy was announced by Tim Pallas days before he quit as treasurer and resigned from Parliament last month.
Northern Victoria Region MP Jaclyn Symes, now Victoria’s treasurer, said the levy overhaul would better support the state’s emergency services as they faced more demand
New Local Government Minister Nick Staikos, appointed in a reshuffle after Mr Pallas’s departure, capped the 2025-2026 council rate rise at three per cent.