RATEPAYERS PROTEST
INCREASED HOSPITAL LEVY
"The association views with alarm the fact that the total levy claimed by the Wellington Hospital Board from the contributory local bodies as their share for the maintenance of hospitals is increased by approximately 40 per cent, for the year ending March 31, 1946." says a statement by the Wellington Ratepayers' Association. "The total amount to be contributed by the local bodies amounts to the colossal sum of £291.728. The apportionate of the levy that has to be met by the Wellington City Council is £210,868, an increase of no less than £58,794 on the previous financial year. While all else must take secondary place to war requirements, as far as possible, this Dominion's internal economy must be preserved. The association, considers this can only be done if the weight of all taxation is fairly apportioned and 'hope of reward which sweetens labour and thrift' is not completely destroyed. "Party politics should not enter into the present inequitable system of hospital taxation that for too long now has been imposed on home, owners to meet ever-increasing hospital levies. This most unfair form of double taxation on one section of the community for the maintenance of our hospitals should be made a charge, not on one section of the community, but on the whole through the Consolidated Fund.
"The existing inequitable system of taxation can only have inevitable consequences, namely, the ultimate loss of indiyidual ownership. It remains for Parliament, irrespective of party, to remove a long-standing injustice by legislating for the weight of all taxation to be fairly apportioned. Failing this, the ev^r-increasing hospital levy on property . owners, together with heavy rate burden and rising cost, will mean dispossessing worthy citizens of their life's savings by destroying all equity in private ownership."
The Greater Wellington Electors' Association is to call a special meeting to discuss the increased levies.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 91, 18 April 1945, Page 4
Word Count
313RATEPAYERS PROTEST Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 91, 18 April 1945, Page 4
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