Local government is the tier of government closest to the community, but to date it has left all the heavy lifting on the pandemic fight to its federal and state counterparts with the best example being the $130 billion wages subsidy which is a timely tonic for the hundreds of hospitality and retail workers in Albury-Wodonga and surrounds who suddenly had their jobs disappear.

These are unprecedented times and they call for unprecedented responses.

Councils can't expect not to take one for the team and also provide some meaningful support in these trying times.

Albury councillors have put a rate freeze on the table, but their Wodonga counterparts have been mute on the topic.

The Wodonga response to date has been limited to the due date of the final quarter rates instalment being pushed back, a freeze on interest payable on overdue rates and a halt to debt recovery measures.

Sporting clubs presently in lockdown won't be charged for maintenance on their council-owned grounds for three months.

The measures were dismissed as "whoopee do" by the city's ratepayers association president Allan Bounader, who correctly points out the federal and state government responses have been brought in for six months.

The optics don't bode well for Wodonga Council which is still carrying the baggage of the self-inflicted wound of the waste management levy gouge called out by the Victorian Ombudsman.

In an acknowledgment of past mistakes the least it can do in these unchartered waters is provide some meaningful relief even if only rates, residential and business, don't have to be paid for the final quarter of the current financial year.

Savings are presently being made with so many community facilities shut due to coronavirus.

We are constantly being told by our leaders we're all in this together and all need to make sacrifices.

Wodonga Council is not an exception.

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