RATING SYSTEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 6

RATING SYSTEMS

QUESTION OF UNIMPROVED VALUE POSITION BEING MISREPRESENTED. Cr Tapley took occasion at the City Council last night, while the Finance Committee’s report was being discussed, to introduce the question of rating systems, He said he wondered if councillors were aware that a petition was being taken around the city for signatures in connection with the movement to alter the system of rating in the city. The proposal was to introduce the rating on the unimproved value. There was, of course, no objection tc the citizens signing the petition, but they should know what they were signing. A number of people in North-East \ alley and, he presumed, in other places also, had been told that in signing the petition they would, if the new system were adopted, have their rates reduced. Now, that was quite wrong, and he thought the council should put something forward that would enlighten the people on the matter. He considered that the unimproved system would create slums, and this was what the council had been trying to prevent. He thought it was very reprehensible that people should be misled and that they were being told that they would gain by the new system. Cr Mitchell: Cr Tapley should have a debate with Mr Silverstone.— (LaughCr Begg said he could substantiate every word that Cr Tapley had said. The statement had been made that the rates in some areas would be increased and in others they would be lowered. The statement had been made that the rates in one particular division would be raised by £OOOO. That was contrary to his working out of the two systems. He thought they should make a move to controvert the statements, and give the public some definite information. Cr Campbell said that he had been a. resident of St. Kilda, where they had the unimproved system. He knew that hundreds who had voted for the system then would not vote for it to-day. . Cr Mitchell thought the council might call a public meeting and appoint speakers to place the position before citizens, as they knew the town clerk had made a very close study of the systems. He did not know who was the authority for the figures which were being placed before the public by the speaker who was advocating the unimproved system. A lot of the calculations were based on old Government valuations. If they took a small area with a large building on it and compared it with another place on which a business was being carried on on an extensive area, the unfairness of the position would be apparent. Some people believed what they wanted to believe, and if facts were placed before them they would prove very educative. It was'agreed that the Finance Committee should draw up a report on the capital and unimproved systems. The Mayor added that the discussion had been rather out of order, as it was the adoption or otherwise of. the Finance Committee’s report that the council was considering. The real position, however, regarding the present arguments about the rating was to prove them. A lot could be said for both systems, and also a lot for a third system. Many of the figures given out had not been proved to be correct.