CORPORATION FINANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11045, 24 February 1898, Page 3

CORPORATION FINANCE.

-, ■!■ .--Uifr, I' . - - I 1 At the meeting ofthe City Council last evening, j ] The Mayor, in moving the adoption of the j . Finance Committee's report, said that the Is 9d j•* rate which the council had decided to strike 1 ; would leave a deficiency in the municipal account !'; of £27.10 10s Bd, which had been transferred from < the water and gas accounts to the municipal « account to enable the revenue to meet the *x- 1 penditurc. Iv the 'committee's discussion bf the ■ matter an important question was j-aisisd-by'Cr , Haynes, who expressed, a strong feeling that the transfer should not be made, but that in lieu the general rate should be raised sufficiently to pro- : vide the deficiency. He (the mayor) had a good ' deal of sympathy with that view, but, fin'diug ''' that the committee was not unanimous in it, he : voted agaiDst the adoption of the suggestion. Gr ■ p Haynes's further suggestion was that in order to ! , lighten the increased burden oa the ratepay'ersa i ' change should be made ia the incidcnee'of the > water rate, No doubt tbe water rates did seem | oae-sided, tbe small property-owners being : appa-eutly unfptirly treated, and possibly some change should be made. ' ! _ Cr Denniston seconded, pro forma, the motion I forthe adoption of the report. He believed in > sound finance, and there, cuuld hot be auy thing' of that until their expenditure was balanced by the revenue. Therefore he-agreed with Cr Mayhems proposal that they should strike an additional general rate of 3d, which would produce about ±200 more thau the deficiency now shown in the finance. He agreed with the mayor that the incidence of the water rale fell moit inequitably, and the suggestion made by Cr Haynes was one in the right direction- He hoped the, time-was approaching when relief would al'so'be given to the consumers of gas. Cr Haynes said he intended to. move, as an amendment to the report— "■ That the general municipal rate of ls be increased by 3d, aud that, the maximum charge, under the. water, rate be 5, per cent." His object in moving the amendment ■*as to place the municipal accouot on a proper basis, so that they heed not tinker with it year { after year, as their present method compelled j them to do. By the adoption, of, his- amendment \ they would be able to make ends meet. He wis | glad to say there were indications lhat. they had | turned the corner. The valuations, showed an ; lucreaise of about £2000, so thit if. his suggestion 'A was carried the municipal department; would be ! piit ou a satisfactory basis. What he proposed i was to reduce the water rate by an almost equiva- :' lent amount. The reduction would come to ' about £2300, and the addition ofthe 3d rate would 1 bnug in about £2SOO, and there would then be a ! marßinof £200 between the iucoiue apd the ex- \ penditure. Since they had beeii compelled to i increase their rates he had made application to the town clevkto furnish bim with a Tepoi-t on the incidence of the taxation, and'the return showedhow, monstrously unfair it was. - He would give the items. „ The total nuiuber of water rate pay ers wis 4282— at any rate that was .the number-of assessments on the various,properties. Out of that number 2-328.. ratepayer's : were assessed at. 7 per cent., and Ythe valuation on those properties amounted to £143,774; returning a revenue of £7264. The .total revenue of the w iter department was £11,050, and if : councillors, would analyse -that they would observe tbat the small householders,, who were j assessed at a. little over one-third of the total ' valuation, paid nearly, two-thirds of the tot"*! I ; revetiuethat came iv from the water department. I ■ That was monstrously unfair. His proposal, I j therefore, was that they should-make the tuaxi- ! ; mjim 5 per cent.; which -"would reduce the income | by about £2300. The principal revenue came i from the7,per cent, and tbe 2J .perceqt. people. ) i Would councillors credit it that the 2£- per cent. > j people numbered 737 and tbat the valuation waß '. j £102,(100 -nearlythe same as the. ofcher.—a-rid the i j total they paid to the corporation was £2552, '• I which was about one-third of what the 7: percent. ! people pay. The 6 per cent, people numbered 131,'' arid, their valuation was £17 ; 690, bringing in ; ! £1061; and the others paid lesser, sums.' The total 'i (shrinkage, in round numbers, would be about j [ £|300. Of course they would :be told that it ' I would not be judicious to interfere with the water j i rate in the face of the large expenditure—£l7,C'oo l j —looming in the future, but he ventured to I I assert that any improvements. effected could be ! met out of tbe surplus profits of the water [ account at: the present time. There was i now a cpredit balauce. of £13.000, and it i hik proposal was carried the surplus profit j would still be £2300 annually. He trusted i the council woiild asree to postpone consideration j of the question until next meeting, so thafc couti-.] cillors might be furnished in the meantime with copies of the'return showing the incidence of: taxation. -.-.,.■ . ; Cr JVl'ouat seconded the amendment m-o forma,: i Cr Solomon thought-Cr Haynes bad giveu tho i strongest reason why the amendment should be I negatived when he said that £17,000 required to j be spent on the waterworks, probably within the i next three or four years. He thought the com- i mittee's estimates were auite satisfactory. Only j recently extra taxation to the extent, of £2000 or j £0000 was put-on, and now there was a proposal : to still further increase it. The Municipal Corporations Act provided that holdings of the value of not more than £10 per annum should nofc pay i luoi-e than IQs per annum as water rates. A mau who was asuessed at £15 per annum now paid 21a, j aiid would pay under Or Haynes's proposal 153, j thus saving.6?, but as he would-have to pay j 3s 9d extra rates the result would be that ■he would save the enormous sum bf 2s 3d per annum. In this way the total saving to the property-holder rated at £20 would be 3s, anil to one rated at £40, l's per annum.. The saving on a property valued at £80 per annum would be 12s. In order to relieve people to this trifling extent they were asked to placo uponn.he. general ratepayers an extra burdea of £3000 a year, and in order to do that tbe proprietors of-shops, hotels, theatres, and so on, would have-to pay over £20>0. It seemed to him an improper thing to hnpone any additional rates at the present time, as such addition was not needed. He did not see why anyone should seek to interfere with the matter. _ He had heard a great deal'about putting the municipal account upon a proper basis, but the finances of the corporation were, to.bis miml, in a very reasonable position, and to square the accounts they cduld afford to take twice as much money as was proposed from the gas and water accounts. They only required to take from these departments the mm of £2730, and there wa? no difficulty in taking thab and providing all that was necessary to be doae for the gas and water departments. The amendment,seemed to him to be very injudicious, and he hoped the council would carry the Finance Committee's recommendations. • , . Cr Carroll was of opinion that it wonld be ™1 to leave matters alone. . They should con- , sider that the water and gas works' were 'the property of the ratepayers, and that they taxed the ' burgesses for au article they hada right to expect a profit from:. Out of respect to Cr Hayueihe : was willing, tbe consideration' of the' question I should be postponed till the next meeting, so tnat the council might fully consider his prok posals, but his opinion, so far as he bad formed - it, was adverse to the amendment. I Cr, 'Sl' VA:' moved that the debate be adjourned I until the next ordinary meeting of the council. This amendment was not open to debate, and . on being put was carried. Mr S.ilomon voting , a»ainst it, but subsequently signifying his con- ( currence with it. 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