5 Per Cent Rise In Rates Likely

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31702, 11 June 1968, Page 1

5 Per Cent Rise In Rates Likely

An increase is inevitable when the Christchurch City Council fixes its rates next Monday evening. The increase will probably be a little below 5 per cent of the council’s consolidated rates.

The council fixes a general rate, which is levied on the unimproved value, and special rates to cover waterworks, libraries, interest and capital repayment of loans and the levies of other bodies such as the museum and Riccarton bush.

If the council keeps the increase below 5 per cent, near a figure believed to be recommended by the estimates committee, city ratepayers will have to meet an increase below that asked on the average of their neighbours in Waimairi.

Wages and salaries are a major item in the estimates of the council; and when rates are fixed the council must take cognisance of likely increases. Council wages are related to the rul-ing-rates survey of Government employees, and that survey is affected by any general wage order of the Court of Arbitration. Based on the last order, provision must be

made for about a $150,000 increase in the wages bill. No extraordinary call on ratepayers is expected.

There is still a desire to have the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch in 1974, but planning has not advanced to a stage where the council will be called on for anything other than normal development of sports grounds and facilities. The purchase of “Mona Vale” by the council in partnership with the Riccarton Borough Council and public subscribers is unlikely to add anything to the rates, because the property has not yet been taken over from the Mormon Church and come to charge. “Mona Vale” may become a major issue, or at the least a debating point, at the municipal elections in October; but its purchase cost and the cost of maintenance may be weighed against the possibility that the house will be used as a Christchurch residence for the GovernorGeneral (Sir Arthur Porritt). The council’s income from sources other than rates is expected to be about the same as last year. To qualify for the National Roads Board’s subsidy on roading and bridges, it cannot cut down on works. The council is among the last of the Christchurch local bodies to fix rates, partly because it is a collecting agent for ad hoc local bodies such as the Drainage and Transport Boards. City ratepayers who look at the bottom of their rate demand this year will find a bigger increase In the rates of the ad hoc bodies than the 5 per cent increase likely to be levied by their territorial local body. Although the Transport Board has dropped its rate, the decrease will be infinitesimal on an individual’s demand, and both the North Canterbury Catchment Board, which does not figure largely on city rate notices, and the Drainage Board need more.