ALTERNATIVE TO RATING

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26723, 6 May 1952, Page 10

ALTERNATIVE TO RATING

CITIZENS’ TAX SUGGESTED

A better method of obtaining local body revenue than by rating is considered by Mr H. C. Blazey, president of* the Greater Christchurch Ratepayers’ Association, to be a form of tax in which every citizen would pay an annual sum lor the privilege of living in a city and enjoying its amenities.

There would be many difficulties in implementing this system, but a citizen tax would probably be the fairest method of rating, said Mr Blazey, at the first general meeting of the association.

A local body must have a certain defined income to meet its commitments, he said, but the method* of rating employed had a marked effect on the ratepayer. It was doubtful if the present rating on unimproved land was suitable. This method was instituted in the early days of the city when it was still largely rural in character and undeveloped. It was doubtful whether the system was suitable for the highly organised city of to-day, said Mr Blazey. The Christchurch Drainage Board and other similar bodies used the capital value system of rating, but this was not ideal either, because it did not bear equally on the small property holder and the owner of commercial flats or offi.ce buildings. Another method, advocated by many authorities, was based on annual value; it met the objection to rating on capital value.

Mr Blazey said that in recommending a form of citizen tax he was referring to a suggestion made by the Auckland City valuer (Mr W. G. Boswell) in an address to the Municipal Conference at Rotorua.

Mr Boswell said property owners were paying a disproportionate amount of local revenue, and this, meant that many citizens who were not ratepayers were paying a disproportionately small amount towards the upkeep of,the city in which they lived. Mr Boswell said in Auckland city there were 26,000 on the ratepayers’ roll and 95,000 on the electoral roll. By doubling the number on the ratepayers’ roll to allow for more ratepayers being married, and assuming that it was vaguely true that tenants did not contribute towards rates, it would seem that a large body of people lived in the city who made no direct contribution towards its upkeep. According to the Abstract of Statistics Christchurch ratepayers paid £7 18s Id a head in rates, said Mr Blazey. As ratepayers formed only a small proportion of the total population, it was possible that the average rate was more] than £3O and that at least half of the citizens in Christchurch paid no rates at all.

The financial membership of the association was 67 and it was hoped that the number would be increased rapidly. Mr Blazey reported that an interim committee, appointed last year, had drawn up a set of rules and recommended that the association should consider the following subjects; a ward system of representation on the Christchurch City Council in place of -the present method; alternative methods of rating; nationalisation of the tramways, and of local body concontrol; the city milk supply. The following officers were elected: president, Mr H. C. Blazey; vicepresident, Mr R. M. Hilder; secretarytreasurer, Mr A. V. Belsten; committee, Messrs L. Christie, C. H McPhail, J. L. Turner, W. E. J. Dodd, L. Hdllings, F. Laws, H. Bliss and C. S. Trillo.