The Rates Game
Glorious ratepayers have received the windowed envelope in the last few weeks.
The one that is such a joy to open. The one that makes one jump with excitement and smile uncontrollably.
Nervous fingers rip the firmly stuck flap and expose the coloured sheet of details to behold.
Where does one start?
It's a trick actually. They (you know, them that think up these puzzles) , they make sure there is a range of print size, a list ,explanations , highlighted passages and a box here and there.
It always seems easy to find the penalty .If you don't pay on time you get slogged with another 10%.
Many befuddled ratepayers don't know that the legislation says a council can charge 'up to 10% penalty' but I have never seen one that chose a lesser figure. Even when interest rates dropped to levels where us slaves were able to breathe and put something extra in the shopping trundler , the bureaucrats would never draw the option to the attention of the compliant decision makers. It stayed at 10%.
However back to the sheet of delight.
Over the years government have allowed councils to have add ons. In other words more ways of extracting cents from ill informed drones who never read the finer details and write the cheque with a 'whatever' .
The worst option given to Local Authorities was the ability to impose a Uniform Annual Charge.
What an opportunity to slip in a raft of options to raise more funds to spend unwisely.
Back to the rates.
The recent storm , or Gabrielle, stirred up more than the mud and water. More than the problem of silt and where to put it.
The Council wallahs must have been doing overtime thinking how can we give the affected ratepayers all the help available but sneakily recuperate any expenditure when they are not looking.
The help of course was tremendous from some Councils that understood the gravity of the situation and remitted rates for two years. It was of huge assistance but now the plan has been revealed.
Ha, ha. We have unlimited power . What we gave we will retrieve.
The ratepayers that have clawed their way back to some sort of normality have now been slipped a charge for Gabrielle. Have they charged everyone , every ratepayer with this levy? I hope so.
Spread the load. Especially when some of those affected were sacrificed to take the brunt of the event because of the historical planning for the Flood Control scheme.. In that case then they should not have to have the added burden of a levy at this time.
The other aspect to this rates imposition is the question of valuations. The valuations used for the latest rates are the same as pre Gabrielle. My bank showed me a valuation recently that had reduced since the event.
It looks as though there is a desire to retain the value so they can extract as much rates as possible from the damaged area rather than go through an exercise that would adjust for the tragedy.
The Councils therefore, have smiled and waved at us and then when we were heads down resurrecting our mansions and swimming pools they pulled the rug.
I actually questioned the local MP about the valuations but no response .No understanding . No worry.
