RATES TO RISE — BUT HOW MUCH?

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 53, 4 July 1974, Page 1

RATES TO RISE — BUT HOW MUCH?

Taupo ratepayers will have to wait until the end of this month to find out how much borough rates will rise. The Mayor, Mr C. S. Currie, has confirmed the borough rates will rise — but he cannot hazard a guess by how much. The borough council will discuss the estimates at an executive meeting on July 16. The final decision will be made at the normal monthly meeting on July 22.

At this stage, the council cannot see how it can avoid passing on spiralling costs and wages. "It is inevitable that rates will go up, or we will be* going backwards. But we have not discussed it at all yet and I would not vhafeard-'a guess,'* said Mr Currie. "The rate of inflation alone makes a rise necessary, simply to keep page with what we were doing last year." The wages bill and

servicing of loans are the council's biggest expenses. The most costly loans are for electricity and sewerage reticulation. Taupo rates have gone up between 12 and 20 per cent in the last four years, after remaining stable in 1968 and 1969. In 1970, ratepayers faced a 12 per cent rise, followed by nearly 20 per cent the following year. The average increase in rates in 1972 was 13.22 per cent — 5.67 per cent of

which went toward provid.ing a permanently manned fire service. Last year, Mr Currie defended the borough's 14 per cent rate rise and said he was certain Taupo was getting the highest efficiency in administration for its money. "Obviously, we are not getting as much as we would like to carry on development of much needed facilities, but we have got to be as realistic as possible : when it comes to how much we can expect from ratepayers," he said. Taupo was probably the last municipality in the country to get its original streets sealed and to have kerbing and channelling. It was behind with a lot of civil amenities because

of its rapid growth, said Mr Currie. But Taupo was a beautiful city in the making, which could only progress as fast as the financial strength of its ratepayers could permit. Over the nine years to 1971, Taupo was below the New Zealand average per ratepayer and, in 1971, was paying only 69 per cent of the New Zealand average in rates. "I am certain we remain below average and when you consider what we are obliged to meet in the way of annual loan charges alone, it r^ust prove that we employ a goodly measure of logical efficiency in our methods of local Government," Mr Currie said last year.