Rural Sector Should Have Rates Rebate Says Council

Tararua District Council has strong words for the government’s Rating Inquiry Panel saying it is completely “failing to grasp” issues surrounding rural affordability and roading subsidy inequalities.


The council is going in to bat for the rural sector saying that along with urban households it too should have access to the government’s rates rebate.


In a submission to the Local Government Rates Inquiry the council argued that rural affordability was “a real issue” in times of low commodity prices and adverse climate conditions.


This severely limited the ability of councils to recognise the “particular circumstances of the rural sector.”


It reacted to the Panel’s suggestion that issues raised in submissions from the farming and business sectors were “essentially matters of equity and transparency rather than matters of affordability.”


In fact the rural sector was taxed on rateable value when that value had very little relation to profitability the council argued.


The inquiry’s architects the Rating Panel had “not grasped the issue at all.”


Roading subsidies and urban/ rural inequalities are another big issue for Tararua.


As a rural council which attracts a 60% maintenance and 70% construction subsidy from the government’s financial assistance rate (FAR), Tararua “views with grave concern” a recommendation by the Rating Panel to ‘review’ the allocation to advantage the urban arterial network.


The submission argues that any reduction in the FAR rate would have “profound implications’ for a district in which affordability is a “constant dilemma” due to a large roading network (1,956 kms) and a sparse population.


The Rating Panel’s recommendations that formed the basis of the Tararua council’s submissions are in response to a consultative document entitled “Did The Inquiry Get real?”


Tararua would probably say “no.”