“A BUGBEAR”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1939, Page 4

“A BUGBEAR”

INCIDENCE OF HOSPITAL RATING COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSION PRESENT SYSTEM OF TAXATION CRITICISED. The incidence of hospital rating in light of the introduction of the Social Security scheme was briefly discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the Masterton County Council. It was agreed that a thorough investigation of the whole incidence of hospital rating was long overdue. . Councillor W. I. Armstrong said that the advent of the Social Security would not make any difference to hospital rates levied on local bodies. The chairman, Mr R. E. Gordon Lee, said hospital rafing had been a bugbear for a good many years. It was high time they got together to see whether a more reasonable basis of taxation could not be worked out. Councillor P. R. Welch said it had oeen contended that hospital rating should be altered and placed on the individual and not on the land. If that were done, however, those responsible for running hospitals would be placed in a precarious position as they would not know what they were going to collect. “It is not fair tfiat counties should have to pay 82 per cent of the hospital rates levied,” observed Councillor Armstrong. It would be far more equitable,, he added, to levy the rates 50 per cent on population and 50 per cent on land. Of the 82 per cent paid by counties in the Wairarapa, the Masterton and Featherston counties paid 40 per cent, which was over the odds. Councillor J. W. Colquhoun: “We are in favour of any form of taxation that is fairer than the present one.” Councillor H. H. Mawley, who is also chairman of the Wairarapa Hospital Board, said there was no doubt that the present incidence of hospital rating was wrong. The basis of rating should be assessed on ability to pay, and not on property. He thought they should support any move for a revision of hospital rating. The Mayor of Masterton, Mr T. Jordan, was on right lines when he suggested that hospital taxation should be paid on the same basis as the Unemployment tax. The discussion then lapsed.