Heathcote rates set to rise 6 p.c.

Press, 1 June 1984, Page 7

Heathcote rates set to rise 6 p.c.

Heathcote County ratepayers will probably face a 6 per cent increase in their general rate this year. A special meeting of the County Council’s finance and general committee last evening settled on the increase after first being faced with a 21 per cent increase worked into the estimates. The county’s water rate will increase 5 per cent. The committee spent four hours trimming its estimated expenditure in an effort to reduce the rate demand. About $83,000 was trimmed from the estimates. The council began the financial year with $176,000 in credit balance. The original 21 per cent rate increase would have used $56,000 of the credit bal-

ance. Councillors were reluctant to use much of the remaining credit, but finally settled on reducing the balance to $97,000. This brought the rate increase down to 6 per cent. The rate increase would have been 9 per cent if the credit balance was left at $120,000. The County Chairman, Mr O. T. Alpers, wanted the rate increase to remain at 9 per cent so that the credit balance could be preserved. Heathcote ratepayers had been given “a bit of a luxury” in the nil rate increase last year, he said. A total of $157,000 had to be taken from the credit balance then to achieve that result. “Using up $57,000 in credit this year (to achieve

a 9 per cent increase) is already a luxury without using another $23,000,” said Mr Alpers. Because Heathcote County was so small, every $7OOO in the estimates represented 1 per cent in the rate demand. Other Christchurch local bodies which had recommended small rate increases this year would not be able to maintain that level next year, he said. The chairman of the finance committee, Cr T. P. Wills, was adamant the increase should not be more than 6 per cent. He said that many ratepayers had not had a wage increase for several years and were already at the limit of the amount they could pay in rates.