Albury Council could designate a further $150,000 for COVID-19 hardship relief.
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The extension of a rate relief program in the upcoming council budget has been recommended by staff for Monday's council meeting.
Strategy and performance officer Justin Finlayson wrote council has received about 100 applications and provided financial assistance of almost $40,000 to affected residential rate payers.
"It is proposed that council extend its dedicated COVID-19 Hardship Rate Relief Program to the 2021/22 financial year," he wrote.
"It could be open to all or limited categories of ratepayers that demonstrate considerable financial hardship as a direct result of the COVID-19 crisis."
Australian Government Treasury reports indicate that as at January 31, there were 510 organisations in the 2640 and 2641 postcode areas that had applications processed for JobKeeper payments.
That support has now come to an end.
Staff stopped short of recommending council consider not applying the approval overall rate peg or reducing ordinary rates.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Further, an extension of one-off reductions for domestic waste management charges, which council has spent $1 million on, has not been recommended.
An overall deficit is budgeted for the 2021-22 financial year, mainly due to an increase in non-cash depreciation expense and COVID-19 operational impacts.
When all rates, water, sewer and waste management charges are combined, the average residential property impact will increase $71 or $1.37 per week, representing an average increase of 2.6 per cent.
