Councillors approved rates increase of 6%
Fianna Fáil vote for; Fine Gael vote against
A 6% hike in commercial rates has been approved by Westmeath county councillors by 12 votes to seven, Fianna Fáil and the Greens with Michael Dollard voting in favour and Fine Gael, Labour and Jamie Moran voting against.
At the annual estimates meeting on Monday, Cllr Tom Farrell of Fine Gael slated the increase, saying that it was anti-business and that the increase could have been applied less painfully to the Local Property Tax.
He urged the councillors to back the small traders and to vote down the rate increase. He proposed that they should not approve the rate increase. He did not forward a counter-proposal.
Labour’s Denis Leonard, seconding Cllr Farrell, said that most local businesses were still coming out of the recession and suffering the effects of a drop in footfall, increases in insurance costs and they were being asked now to pay €600 to put up a sign on the street.
He suggested that a 30 to 60 cent increase in Local Property Tax would achieve the same aim.
The LPT brings in €11.2 million and the councillors voted last September not to increase it.
Cllr Ken Glynn proposed that the council approve the budget and he was seconded by Cllr Michael Dollard, who said there were lots of positives in it, that they had spent 11 hours discussing it and that they had to balance their budget going forward for the next year.
The rates hike is to be softened by a grant scheme that affords rate payers a 5% discount on their rates bill up to a maximum of €250. This means that for 82% - 2,565 rate payers in Westmeath – the increase will be less than 1%. The highest increase of 4-6% will affect 10% or 308 rate payers and there will be an increase of 1-3% for 255 rate payers.
The increase in rates will generate an additional gross income of €976,000 for the council. Presenting the budget to the members, the council’s chief executive, Pat Gallagher, pointed out that Westmeath has the lowest Annual Rate on Valuation of any non-urban council in the country.
Those who voted in favour of the adoption of the estimates were: Fianna Fáil, Cllrs Bill Collentine, Aoife Davitt, Ken Glynn, Chairman, Paddy Hill, Frankie Keena, Vinny McCormack, Liam McDaniel, Aengus O’Rourke, and John Shaw; the Green Party, Cllrs Louise Heavin and Hazel Smyth; and independent, Cllr Dollard.
Those against were Fine Gael, Cllrs John Dolan, Tom Farrell, Frank McDermott and Emily Wallace, Labour, Cllr Denis Leonard and Johnnie Penrose and independent, Cllr Jamie Moran. Cllr Andrew Duncan of Fine Gael was absent.