€102 MILLION TO BE SPENT IN WEXFORD NEXT YEAR
Wexford County Council has a total budget of €102.4 million to keep the county up and running next year.
CEo of Wexford County Council Tom Enright said that the decision by members of the council to increase the Local Property Tax (LPT) by 5 per cent will generate an additional €607,812 next year bringing the income from the tax to €14,155,328. He said that €400,000 of this money will be used within the Economic Development to provide for the financing of proposed development in the county while the remaining €200,000 will be added to the roads programme to implement a locally funded Community Involvement Scheme providing for a new co-funded scheme for local road projects.
However it is bad news for most businesses in the county as the rates harmonisation process continues into 2017. Businesses in the Wexford district face a 2.73 per cent increase in commercial rates while businesses in the New Ross and Enniscorthy district face a 2.9 per cent increase. Commercial rates will generate an income of €33,928,519 across the county.
Mr Enright said that Wexford, New Ross and Enniscorthy had approved the draft budget for their districts but Gorey hadn’t. However he said that ‘ having considered the factors impacting on the budget’ the budget for the Gorey area would be incorporated into the overall budget despite being rejected by the Gorey councillors.
He said that the budget ‘will lead economic, social and community development within the county’.