Dear Echo,
Councillor Pugh cites on page 6 of last week’s Echo an outcome that he and I achieved in 2023, capping the Shire’s minimum rate to $1,000. It would otherwise have risen from $969 the previous year to $1,014 for 2023-24. The purpose of the freeze was to give landholders of lower-valued land a small leg up. It was a modest saving of $14 for that year. The real impact would have been in subsequent years when the saving would have compounded with the minimum rate frozen at $1,000. The freeze was lifted however in 2024, and the minimum rate restored to its original pre-cap trajectory at $1,048.
Readers on the minimum can check your last three years of rates notices ($969, $1000, $1048). It was true that the freeze in 2023 was not supported by the outgoing mayor. Nor in 2024.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
