"Pleasant Surprise For Many”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30783, 22 June 1965, Page 1

"Pleasant Surprise For Many”

“Notwithstanding the widespread impression that increases in the valuation of properties by the Valuation Department necessarily means increased rates, and notwithstanding reports of the rising cost of wages and their effect on rates, a great many ratepayers will get a pleasant surprise,” Cr. H. P. Smith, chairman of the finance committee. said when the City Council discussed the'estimates.

Many would find the increase they were required to pay would be nominal, and many would find a reduction, he said.

The control pf rates was a difficult problem for all local bodies, he said. In Christchurch, where there was substantial progress, it would be recognised that as the city grew and amenities were

added, so did the cost rise. Rates directly subject to the council’s decisions had risen by £74.942, or 6.95 per cent, Cr. Smith said. The water rate had been reduced by £2168, or .89 per cent, he said. If a ratepayer had an unimproved value increased by exactly 37 per cent he would pay to the council the sum he paid last year, plus about Is in the £. -

City ratepayers would be paying about £40,000 less to the Drainage Board, he said, and only the Fire Board of the ad hoc bodies had increased its levy, and it was only about £4OOO up. More For Wages The wage increase given under the ruling-rates survey of the Government and followed by the council meant another £27,000 on the rates, Cr. Smith said. The council's total wage bill for the year would be £1.75m.

“We are going to give the staff more light, more room and a cafeteria,” he said of the estimate for improvements to the council chamber.

He realised that persons on fixed incomes could be in difficulty, and he had in mind for next year some means of relieving persons who were living on Social Security, Cr. Smith said. Cr. L. Christie: You’ve had nine years to do it. Cr Smith: 1 could reply that the Mayor has had 30 years to do it, or Cr. Macfarlane 25 years. “If we want a well-kept city

we have to pay for it,” Cr. A. R. Guthrey said. “Is the present basis of rating on unimproved value the most equitable in spreading the burden of rates over the whole community?” Cr H. G. Hay asked. “Capital value may be a fairer basis.”

Some local authorities did not contribute to the amenities of the city, and because they had a different basis of rating there could be anomalies in boundary districts.