RISING municipal rates have prompted the Victorian Farmers Federation to send an open letter to rural councils calling for change.
Draft council budgets for 2010 show rate rises across the state but rural dwellers are set to be slugged with the biggest increases.
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Strathbogie Shire residents will be dealt a 15.1 per cent increase, while Golden Plains and Gannawarra Shire ratepayers face 12 per cent and 10.9 per cent rises respectively.
Councils blame rising land values on their decision to increase rates.
In the open letter Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad said farmers were "shouldering an unfair burden of municipal rates" because farm land had higher value than the average residential house.
"The value of farm land does not reflect the profitability or income attained from that land," Mr Broad said.
"In many shires, we have farm families contributing three times or more that of their residential counterparts."
Mr Broad called for an increase to the farm rate differential to reduce the amount of rates paid by farmers.
