CITY MOTOR TAXES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18896, 19 December 1924, Page 10

CITY MOTOR TAXES.

The new scale of fees for lienvy motor traffic adopted by the City Council last evening represents a substantia increase in the taxation of the users of the roads for their maintenance. It is, however, significant that a deputation from one

orgjinisauon of prospective ta?:payers admitted to (he council that its proposals are reasonable. That judgment, has generally been endorsed by proprietors of heavy vehicles, either by unprotesting acquiescence or by informal expressions of submission. \% is not to be supposed that the necessity for paying such fees is welcomed, but those upon whom the charges will fall have, if not cheerfully at least philosophically, acknowledged the justice of transferring from the general body of ratepayers to the direct users of the roads an equitable share of their cost. There is naturally difficulty in making a fair apportionment of the roading costs between rates and traffic fees —there is an important restriction in the statutory provision that the maxi-

muni fee is to be £75, which implies proportionate limitations on the lower rates of any scale. The actual results may be measured by information furnished by the Mayor this week. He then presented estimates showing that the capital charges of the new streets programme, involving an expenditure of £660,000, would be covered by the additional revenue from license fees and by the anticipated increase in the yield from special rates on the additional valuations. An- extremely liberal allowance for the traffic revenue would be to estimate it a.s sufficient to pay interest and sinking fund on this sum of £-660,000. That would leave as the charge against the general body of ratepayers the cost of maintaining streets comprised in this programme, and all the charges —interest and maintenance—in respect of all other city streets, on which the capital expenditure since 1906 has been £900,000. The comparison may be interpreted as signifying that heavy traffic has not been called upon to pay its fair share: at least, it indicates that owners of heavy traffic have no cause for complaint of harsh taxation, but that, ;is they hciw acknowledged, the new scale of iee3 is reasonable.