LOCAL BODIES’ FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1922, Page 4

LOCAL BODIES’ FINANCE.

The passing of the Local Bodies’ Finance Bill on Wednesday marks a new era in the financial affairs of those bodies that should eventually prove of great service. The system of diving on borrowed money has grown to such proportions that some was necessary. The provision enabling these bodies to anticipate income from rates by borrowing up to the amount of the previous year’s levy could never have been intended to be permanent. The whole trouble has been, caused by the delay of ratepayers in making their payments, it being a common practice to withhold the money until almost the eve of the day on which the ten per cent, penalty operated. Borrowing money in these times of stress is a costly business, and ratepayers have in the years of plenty apparently failed to realise that every penny paid for interest on overdraft is so much taken from the amount avaihvble for the upkeep of the roads, therefore adding to the expense and curtailing the amount of work done. It is admitted that the present is no time to institute a radical change, for many ratepayers, especially in the country districts, are ”up against it” financially, so that no doubt is the reason for Parliament permitting local bodies to borrow up to threefourths of the previous year’s ratd’fe, but clearly the curtailment is a notice to local bodies to gradually set their financial house in order and ultimately work on their own resources and not on the banks.’