Board discusses rating

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 7

Board discusses rating

The Christchurch Drainage Board plans to submit its views on rating systems to the Christchurch City Council. The chairman of the board’s finance committee, Mr R. E. Wilton, said at its meeting yesterday that whatever rating system was adopted some ratepayers would not be satisfied.

A switch to capital value rating would make thousands of ratepayers significantly worse off, said the board’s chief administrator, Mr Norman Kelly. “Just switching to capital value rating is not the answer,” he said. The City Council faced the problem of dealing with a mixture of rating systems. “For example, the Drainage Board and the Christchurch Transport Board rates are levied on capital value while the council

rates on land value,” Mr Kelly said. “Because the Drainage Board levy is about 21 per cent of the total rates it has a significant impact on any attempt to even out rates. “The board chooses to rate on capital value of properties as it considers that this system reflects the services provided by the board. A switch to land rating for the City Council area for board rates could cause difficulties while other authorities remain on capital value rating.” Rate refunds A rate refund agreed to by the committee could lead to the board’s having to make similar refunds to other ratepayers, Mr C. H. Russell said. The committee decided to refund the 1978 and 1979

rates of a Hoon Hay resident, Mrs W. G. Burke, amounting to almost $B4, as well as a refund for the last five years. Refunding beyond five years in arrears could lead to other ratepayers also asking for refunds for years before the 1980 s, Mr Russell said.

“I think we should find out how many people we would have to refund for more than the five years before we grant this addi-

tional refund to Mrs Burke,” he said. “For example, South Brighton ratepayers were rated for a sewer that they waited 15 years for and residents on Taylors Mistake Road were wrongly rated for several years.” Mr R. S. Leach said that just because the board could face having to refund thousands of dollars to other ratepayers it should not withhold the 1978 and 1979 refund to Mrs Burke. Mr Wilton’s proposal that

the board review possible refunds to other ratepayers was not supported by the committee. “We should at least establish a policy for similar cases in the future,” he said. “We have dealt with Mrs Burke as an individual case but we could argue legally that other refunds are restricted to six years only.” Mr Kelly will report back to the committee on the matter before any decisions about other ratepayers are made.