VARIATIONS IN RATING

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 10

VARIATIONS IN RATING

Unimproved properties in the counties affected by the City Council’s application would suffer an increase in their general and interest rates if included in an area such as the city or the Riccarton borough, which rated on unimproved value, Mr Feast said. Properties with a high capital value and a medium or low unimproved value, on the other hand, would, in the main, enjoy a reduction. Mr Feast presented the commission with a comparison of rates which would have been payable on properties, if the areas affected had been in the city, with the rates paid to the present local bodies.

Referring to variations in the valuations adopted by the various local bodies, he said that the city levied its general, street lighting, library, interest, and Catchment Board rates on the unimproved value, the hospital and

tramway rates on the capital value, the water rates on the annual vame, and the fire protection rate on the value of buildings. Riccarton borough levied its general interest, street lighting, and hospital rates on the unimproved value. The counties levied all their rates on the capital value, except in the case of Heathcote, which levied its water rate on the annual value. All Drainage Board and Tramway Board rates were levied on the capital value. In considering the calculations, which he said could not be applied to all properties because of the varying systems, the commission should bear in mind that there was a wide difference in the dates of the most recent valuations, that much of the county land would be entitled to urban farmland valuations, and that the amalgamation of the areas concerned would reduce the over-all levy.