CAPITAL VALUE RATING IN COUNTY REQUIRED BY LAW

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 160, 18 February 1955, Page 4

CAPITAL VALUE RATING IN COUNTY REQUIRED BY LAW

May Be Altered Later By Poll

In an interview with the Taupo Times on Saturday morning last Mr A. H. O'Keefe, Taupo County Commissioner, dealt with the matter of rating in the County, and explained that tnough ■" the initial system of rating was laid down by law, there was also legal provision for it to -be altered if ratepayers so wished. Mr O'Keefe also stated that he was pushing on with arrangements for the election of the Advisory Committee in terms of Section 13 of the Taupo County Act. .

- A question often asked, said tlie Commissioner, was why he was rating on Capital Value, not 011 Ui.improved Value. The • answer was simple, namely, that that was what the law provided. Strictly speakirig. he had the choice between rating on Capital Value or on Annual Value, but no county rated on Annual Value. Some . cities rated on Annual Value, and a few boroughs. ,So he was obliged, by law, to rate on - Capital Value. This law did not just apply to the Taupo County but apfilied to any district in New Zealand where a new local body was set up. Two other recent examples were the- new pulp and paper towns ah Kawerau and Murupara, formerly part of Whakatane County, which Incidentally rated on Unimproved Value. As new local body areas, these towns must by law start their rating on Capital (or An-. nual) Value. Poll to Change Rating The next thing he often explained to district residents, Mr O'Keefe continued, was that, the same as anywhere else in New Zealand in coun^ties,^ boroughs or cities, ratepayers had the right (under certain .circumstances set out in the Rating Act) to demand that a poll be taken to change to rating on Unimproved Value or, if rating were already on tjnimproved Value, to change to rating 011 Capital Value. , Once a poll. had been held, the question. must rest for three years but, if ratepayers wished, and they got the necessary support from other ratepayers, they might change the method of rating every three years or so. That jnroceclure, as provided* by law, seemed to him to be very democrati c, There was certainly no dictatorship about it, and that was why, said Mr O'Keefe, he did not like, to put it mildly, the recent suggestion by a district resident, appearing ip the New Zealand Herald, that there had been dictatorship in the County. Parliament had passed the Taupo County Act, 1954, The County Office must administer the Act as passed by Parliament. Perhaps we were all a little im clined to think that, when Parliament passed laws that suited us, it was a fine democratic institution, but when it passed laws we did not like. , perhaps we were ifjclin^d to think that it was dictating to us. The Commissioner added that, as far as the County Office was concemed, they did not mind whether they rated on Capital Yalue or on Unimproved Value. Their job was to levy a sufficient amount of rates. Tfm initial method of doing that was settied for them by law, and it was the ratepayers# right and responsibility to alter the method later, in the method provided for by law, ? if they so wished. Amount of Rates Another favourite question, much harder to answer, was how much would the first year's County rates be? In a way, the answer to that was also simple— he simply didn't know! What happened in practically all other counties would happen here^ sometime after the end of the finan* clal yoar on Mavch 81, 1955, about

April or May, they would start to assemble estimates of revenue aud expenditure for the year ending March 31, 195G. By then the ncw Valuation Roll would be available, with values fixed by the Government Valuation Department as at March 31, 1955, in the same way as for every other county's roll. Then a few months' late? there would be published in the Press details of the rate propesed to be struck and soon after that the rate demands would be posted to ratepayers. Until then he could not give any reliable idea what the rates would be. He liked to think that they would not be too higb to upset district residents btU, if they were too low, he would not be able to improve the roads or even keep them up to the present standaTd, which was not very high. Many ratepayers in all parts of New Zealand, said Mr O'Keefe, fell into the error of thinking that all local body rates were too high. In his opinion, this was usually a sellish and short-sighted view because, in the long run, here in Taupo as iri other counties, for the good of the whole district, the correct rate was ' s » the amount that would provide, not overnight but gradually and economically, for all the services and road maintenance to which the majority' of residents of a county thought they were justly entitled. Advisory Committee Referring to the provisions of Sec^ tion 13 of the Taupo County Act, 1954, regarding the Advisory Cornmittee for the- County, the Commissioner stated tftat be was pusjpng afread with the,, necessary- arrapge* ments, There were ar number of prior formalities to be completed. Mr A, L, Gabites, Town and Country Planning consultant, was working on the defiiiition of Riding boundaries. This information wouUl shortly be sent to the ^urveyortGeneral for legnl description of the boundaries, as re? quired by law. The next step would be the fixing of. tlie Riding boundaries by the Governoi'.-Geporal by Order-imCoun-cil. When that had been ,:0Wr It would be possible for the' '"County Commissioner to hold public meetings of residents and' ratepayers, in each Riding. Mr O'Keefe said that he had already had discussions with numerous district residents on (3opnty affairs, and that he was anxious to have the benefit of advice from a widely repre? sentative Advisory Committee of residents and ratepayers. , ^ (the Commissioner added that lie had been giad to hear of the calling of the meeting convened by Mi\ l. Cameron to be held in Taupo, to consider the formation of a Ratepayers' Associaflon, Such an Association ghould be a useful vehlcle for providing contact between the County ad» ministration and the public, which he was keen to develop, , • The matters that had come up for discusslon since the County Office opened on January 10, said .Mr O'Keefe, indicated something of the wide varlety of . business which the Office was and would be handling. , (Con tinued on Page 5);

(Cpntinued from Page 4) E, As exemplifying this, he mentioned |jhat they had to advise the Commisploner of Crown Lands on the future |Bse and control of four acres of |r^cre^ti°h r^serye on thP State highifay at' furangi, a matter on which |I?r O'Keefe said he would be consultilng local residents. Then there had ||een the investigation of a forest Kompany's request- to put a private Kelephone line along some County ■ Other rpatters ftad concerned a dei|iation of one of the principal State liighways, the investigation of new liabdivisions/ in Acacia Bay, Graditreli's Block, the Potts Bstate, Waii|han\ii, Turangi, Waitetoko -and Bthakamaru, and the giving of evlKfence to. the Liquor Control Commis■lon regarding cohditlons uftecting Blquor Ucences In those parts .of the Rounty which were in the King Counn I The future of Mangakino town and Ilts bearing on the possibie new town ®slte near Whakamaru was another Bype o£ problem, still another being ito deal with complaints received from ■«he" Health Department regarding Khat were .regarded by the DepartKnent as being serious health hazards lli (lifferent parts of the County^:'