Wodonga's ranking of 18^th in the state has been publicly quoted by recently appointed chief executive Mark Dixon and newly minted councillor Brian Mitchell also referenced the data in response to criticism from former staffer Charlie Mitchell about the city still being among the highest charging in the state.

The Border Mail sought an explanation on the source of the more positive scoreline compared to the Know Your Council website data referenced by the ex employee.

"The data on the Know Your Council website is effectively two years old, being from the 2017-18 financial year," Mr Dixon explained.

"It does not include the present or upcoming figures.

"The council has done an internal comparison based on the draft budgets of other councils which shows the council sits 18th in Victoria for the average of overall rates and charges."

The council number crunching combines rates and charges for 2019-20 of $2339.21 and not rates exclusively.

But Mr Mitchell said it was another example of "fake news" and opportunistically seizes on the reduction in the waste management levy after stinging criticism from the Ombudsman.

"This is what annoys me with Wodonga Council," he said.

"Fake news and media spin."

Revenue from the waste management levy is forecast to drop by $2,380,000 or 58.48 per cent in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19.

"Wodonga has been able to take advantage of the Ombudsman's requirement to drop the waste levy to only recover costs and hence they wish to take advantage of this as they have had to offset this drop with a rise in general rates," Mr Mitchell said.

Council's assessment was only carried out in the last two weeks and concluded Surf Coast Shire had the highest rates and charges of $3068.64 in 2019-20.

Wodonga sat behind Ballarat, Shepparton and Mildura, according to its own data.

But a Know Your Council website comparison of the four councils from 2017-18 figures on rates alone, Wodonga was higher.

"The important message is that our council is demonstrating fiscal constraint and consciously working to limit rate payments, without impacting on the services we deliver," Mr Dixon said.

"Our trend over recent years shows we are improving."

Victoria introduced rate-capping in 2016 and rates have been capped at 2.5 per cent in 2019-20.