City Council’s Unspent Balances Smaller

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30856, 15 September 1965, Page 8

City Council’s Unspent Balances Smaller

The unspent balances of Christchurch City Council rates have become smaller because expenditure has been nearer to the budget, according to Or. H. P. Smith, the chairman of the council’s finance committee. He made this reply to a letter from J. A. D. Anderson, who wrote to “The Press”:— “In 1962 the Christchurch City Council had an ‘opening balance’ of £101,144. This year it budgets for £7494 to be carried forward to next year; thus in four years it will have used up a back-log of unspent rates amounting to £93,650. I quote figures from the council's pamphlets circulated to ratepayers. Despite this prodigal squandering of “reserves, ’ our rates have risen by approximately 10 per cent per annum (40 per cent over the period). Similarly, the servicing of borrowed money has increased from £246,054 to £339,139. Now the Drainage Board warns us to expect an increase of 23f per cent in rates next year in the ‘old sewered’ districts. The unyears to come? Cr. Smith, in reply, said:— improved value of property has been raised by, say, 20 per cent per annum, or 80 per cent over the four years; this automatically increases the amount we pay. By what astronomical amount must our rates increase in the “The correspondent presumably understands that the budgets referred to are a summary of ail accounts for which rates are struck by the Christchurch City Council. It

is not permitted to keep an unspent rate balance in reserve.

“The relevant legislation provides: . . proposed expenditure of the council during the period for which the rate is to be made, showing any sums already available for that purpose.’ . . . “The reason this aggregation of opening balances has decreased is that the council’s annual expenditure has been closer to its estimates. If it were possible for estimates to be 100 per cent accurate there would be only nil balances.

“It is true that the dty’s public debt has increased during the last decade, but it would have been impossible to finance the works involved from revenue or rates. The dty’s total public debt is still low compared with other large dries. “An increase in value does not automatically increase the amount a ratepayer has to meet. That depends on (a) whether the amount required by the local authority is the same, greater, or smaller than previously; (b) whether the individual increase in valuation is greater or smaller than the dty average.”