Ballarat district farmers are fighting back against the State Government’s proposed Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund.
The levy see’s residential properties cop a 29 per cent tax rise, with primary producers staring down the barrel of a 197 per cent increase.
Clunes fine-wool producer Stuart Robinson says it’ll cost him thousands.
“If the levy passes through parliament, it’s a straight off five grand for me,” he said.
“That’s on top of our rates and we’re only relatively small farmers.”
In a statement, Mayor of the Pyrenees Shire Council, Cr. Tanya Kehoe, says council believes the levy will unfairly impact on their municipality.
She says council believes the fund will cost ratepayers far too much, at a time when cost of living and drought pressures are negatively affecting this region.
A convoy of Victorian farmers, CFA and service workers have travelled to Melbourne today to protest the proposed levy.
