$86,000 TOWN
RATES IN ARREARS,
SAYS RAKIRAKI TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRPERSON
Atotal of $86,000 in town rates is owed to the Rakiraki and Tavua Town Council, says the council’s Board of Special Administrators Chairperson Mark Hirst-Tuilau.
The amount was disclosed during the Rakiraki and Tavua Town Council Board of Special Administrators meeting at the Rakiraki Town Council office on Wednesday. Mr Hirst-Tuilau said this was a reduction from the initial $104,000, which most had not paid since the two towns were incorporated 10 years ago.
“With the closure of the mill, people who own houses all of a sudden don’t have any income,” he said.
“So, people have left the area, houses are empty so we’ve had to go through all that stack and for people who can’t afford to pay, we are entering into payment plans and their plan has to be realistic.”
He said another issue was that residents of Rakiraki were not used to paying town rates. “We’re going to have to change people’s mindset that the council needs funds to operate and we can’t do anything, if we don’t get the rates and $86,000 is a lot of money, but if we can get half of that in, then we would do pretty well,” he said.
He said the special administrators also discussed cost cutting.
“Every council has problems and our revenue comes in from January to March after that it drops right down because our main revenue are rates and business renewals so at the end of the year we haven’t got revenue but there’s still operational costs,” he said.
“The new bus stand design will be put out to tender by February and that will be so there be even some more revenue generated from there. We are looking into possibly putting in some parking metres because no one pays for parking at the moment.” Mr Hirst-Tuilau added the Rakiraki Town Council wanted to increase revenue generation.
“The other is to look at our sports grounds to have more carnivals, music festivals or anything to try and generate revenue not just for the council but for the whole town,” he said.