Wayne Thorley has had enough.

As Murray Bridge’s mayor, he regularly hears complaints about council rates and how much they cost property owners.

But part of that cost – the state landscape levy, previously known as an NRM levy – is completely out of the council’s control.

This financial year, the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board will demand $958,000 worth of funding from ratepayers across the Murray Bridge district.

If you own a home worth $500,000, you’ll pay a landscape levy of about $74.

That will only be about three per cent of your property rates bill.

But councils shouldn’t have to do the state government’s dirty work by collecting it, Thorley suggested – nor should they wear the financial risk of any unpaid debts.

He and the Murray Bridge council will lead a push to force the state government to collect its own tax through Revenue SA, instead of forcing local government authorities to do it.

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“It’s about time the state government collected its own taxes (instead of) expecting local government to take responsibility and liability,” he said.

“It’s unfair, it’s unreasonable to allow councils to take the blame for the high cost of rates (when) some of those charges are state government charges.”

Thorley will raise the issue at an LGA SA forum, for discussion by representatives of councils from across South Australia, this November.

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His aim will be to have the issue resolved by July 1, 2026.

If the government does not budge, councils across the Murraylands and Riverland have resolved to highlight the state levy more conspicuously in their rates notices from next financial year – “in the interests of transparency and accountability”, of course.

LGA offers tentative support for council’s push

LGA SA, the peak body for South Australia’s 68 local councils, offered its tentative support for the idea of changing the way landscape levies are collected.

A spokesperson said having councils collect the levy added unnecessary administration costs, and often left those councils out of pocket.

“This is made worse in regional areas, where some councils have already deferred rates to support local farmers or businesses struggling during the drought,” the spokesperson said.

“The state government is best placed to collect the landscape levy, as it does with other property taxes.

“LGA will continue pushing for this change for our councils.”

Such a push has been tried before.

The City of Victor Harbor raised the issue at the LGA’s 2022 annual general meeting, and a majority of councils voted in favour of asking the state government to change its levy-collecting ways.

The LGA also highlighted the issue during a 2023 review of the Landscape South Australia Act.

Neither approach had any effect.

Landscape levies cost South Australians more than $60 million in 2024-25.

Councils typically make payments towards the levy each quarter, in advance, according to Thorley.

What happens with the money collected through landscape levies?

Funds from the landscape levy go to property owners’ local Landscape SA boards.

In the Murraylands, that’s the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, which covers eight council districts plus an unincorporated pastoral area to the north.

Landscape levies will make up about 20 per cent of the board’s $18.9 million budget for this financial year.

Funds will be spent on:

• Sustainable water use: Helping irrigators become more efficient and educating the community about saving water
• People: Grants, citizen science programs and community partnerships
• Sustainable farming: Improving soil health, reducing erosion and controlling pests
• Healthy rivers, lakes and wetlands: Restoring wetlands and floodplains and saving threatened species
• Healthy natural landscapes: Reducing over-grazing and fire risk, encouraging revegetation and safeguarding native seeds

About $4.1 million will be spent on “foundational programs” such as admin and communications staff, strategic planning and evaluation.

More than half of the board’s annual funding comes from a water levy paid by irrigators.

This article originally appeared in Murray Bridge News.