Councillors agree 1 percent rate increase for Westmeath

Westmeath county councillors agreed a one per cent rate increase for businesses in Westmeath for 2009, after finding a saving of €80,000 in the budget to allow them to push through less of an increase than recommended by the council executive.The council executive had recommended an increase of 2%, which would be the equivalent of €160,000.After discussing the budget at length, Cllr Mark Cooney, on behalf of the Fine Gael party, said: 'While accepting what"s been put forward, we still feel 2% may be difficult for the hard pressed business community. We ask that you limit the increase to 1% and we suggest that the €80,000 saving be made as follows: an extra income of €40,000 from parking fines and charges; an increased income of €10,000 from planning fees; an increase of €10,000 from refuse charges and we feel that the sum allowed for retirement gratuities is too much and propose that would be reduced by €20,000, which would be a saving of €80,000.'After a short adjournment, Cllr Mick Dollard, on behalf of the Labour Party, supported Cllr Cooney"s proposal and said the Labour councillors thought additional funding could be obtained from derelict sites, but were in favour of the 1% increase based on the Fine Gael savings.Cllr Jim Bourke (FF) said he appreciated it had been a tough budget and with the economic downturn the priority should be protecting jobs and thought there should be no increase in commercial rates. He said: 'We propose taking the last €80,000 out of the Mullingar paid parking.'His party colleague Cllr Ken Glynn said he could see both sides of the story, but said he would like to have no increase as they had to help the businesses.Cllr Dollard expressed his disappointment at the suggestion of using money from Mullingar parking charges to make up the shortfall.Cllr Cooney asked for clarification on Cllr Bourke"s proposal and was told it would continued on page 4mean retaining €380,000 raised from paid parking in Mullingar in the budget"s revenue as opposed to €300,000.Cllr Robert Troy (FF) said: 'We appreciate the extreme financial situation out there. We would have envisaged a zero rate increase, but we realise we"re in the minority.'Cllr Kieran Molloy said it was a difficult decision as businesses were going through a tough time.'It would be great to have a zero increase, but it"s very difficult to put through 1% on the town council and have nil half a mile away,' he said, referring to Athlone Town Council"s plans to have a 1% increase.Cllr Molloy agreed with the 1% increase as suggested by Cllr Cooney, but suggested a different way to save the money. He suggesteed an increased income of €12,500 from landfill charges; an increase of €20,000 on bin tags, an increase of €20,000 from housing rents and a decrease of €27,500 in expenditure on conferences.County Manager Danny McLoughlin said: 'In relation to the housing rents, what we have in the income is what you"re going to get. The tags and parking - your guess is as good as mine, we can try, but I"m asking you not to land me with the rents, we can"t do it.'Taking this on board Cllr Cooney suggested using Cllr Molloy"s proposal to save the €80,000 but instead of trying to get increased income for the housing rents, he suggested decreasing the allowance for expenditure on retirement gratuities by €20,000 and withdrew his previous proposal.Cllr Paul Daly (FF) supported Cllr Molloy"s proposal, saying he had hoped for no increase, but the numbers didn"t add up and they had to accept what was there.His party colleague Cllr Tom Allen said he had been approached by a couple of businesses in Moate who appealed for no increase and said given all that Moate had gone through with traffic problems in recent years he would like to think that Moate could be exempt from any increase, which drew a laugh from the other councillors, who said all small towns had problems.Cllr Dollard then asked the council to lobby the Department for the removal of the increase in VAT, which was supported by Cllr Kevin "Boxer" Moran.