CITY COUNCIL PROTEST

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11304, 1 September 1922, Page 5

CITY COUNCIL PROTEST

TAXATION OF LOCAL BODIES “RUNNING. SERVICES ON BEHALF QF PUBLIC.” “A VICIOUS THING.” A recommendation from the finance committee that strenuous opposition should be made against the suggestion of the Taxation Committee to tax the revenue of local bodies provoked some discussion at last night’s meeting of the City Council. Councillor H..D. Bennett thought that all trading concerns should contribute towards tho revenue of the country through taxation. They should not protest against the taxation of tho milk department’s profits. . Voices: The tramways 1 The electric lighting station I A councillor : Divert the revenue from the public into the hands of the Government! There was a growing tendenoy, he said, for municipalities to go in for trading concerns, and if they did not contribute to taxation the load would be placed on the shoulders of the general body of the public. He would not be a party to such a sweeping deoisaon as was proposed in the recommendation. Year by year municipalities were asking for further powers. He felt that it was time that these powers should .be vested in a local body only so long as they contributed to the general taxation. Councillor M. F. Luckie supported the recommendation. He objepted to the thing on "principle. The council was running services on behalf of the publio which, should not be liable to taxation. The proposal was entirely unworkable. “If the Government gets away with this,” declared Or. C. H. Chapman, “it would mean fleecing the cities for the benefit of the country.” Councillor L. McKenzie denounced the proposal as a “vicious tiling.” Large cities, such as Glasgow, had now their profits for the purpose of m unicipa! improvement and development. If the tramway department’s profits were taxen the extension of the service would be tbrotied. There was no difference between Government enterprises, which were tax-free, and municipal enterprises, ,fc6r both were run on behalf of the people. Why should the rate-payer-in the city be made to carry the whole burden P The olause was adopted.