Nine councillors vote against the increase
NINE councillors voted again the LPT increase: Four Sinn Féin members, one from People Before Profit, one Independent and three from Fianna Fáil.
Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Lisa McDonald said the increase in LPT was too much in the current economic climate when inflation and interest rates were both low.
‘House prices are the only place where inflation exists at the moment and here we have the local council adding to it,’ she said.
‘LPT is based on valuations of homes that have not been updated since 2013 when house prices were at their lowest. Another valuation is due in 2019 and many will see their liabilities rise as a result of this,’ she said, echoing comments made at last week’s ‘in-committee’ meeting of Wexford County Council. Cllr McDonald said the increase is being sought to fund loan repayments on special projects, which ‘will mean that the increase will be permanent’.
She also questioned the investment logic of some of these projects when core areas such as social housing, roads, footpaths and other infrastructure require immediate attention.
The councillor also critised the budgetary strategy that was being pursued and said councillors were being asked to ‘buy a pig in a poke’ by the executive which sought increases in commercial rates as well as Local Property Tax without producing an expenditure budget. ‘It’s a strategy of tell us what we can charge and we will tell you where we will spend it,’ she said, adding that what was needed was action on vital issues not ‘glittering launches’.
SF’s Fionntán Ó Súlleabháin said the party’s councillors had made a commitment to the people of Wexford that they wouldn’t support an increase ‘in austerity taxes such as the family Home Tax’.
‘We believe in keeping those commitments. Ordinary people have already paid enough. Last year we warned that these taxes would go only one way - upwards. We’ve been proven correct,’ he told this newspaper.
‘We do appreciate the bind that the executive of the council are in with the cutting of the Local Government Fund.
‘The portrayal of the 10 per cent increase in the LPT by some politicians as a panacea for the county’s economic problems and trumpeted by some as the source of funding for our capital projects is simply spin,’ said Cllr O Sulleabhain.
‘The figures clearly show that the LPT funds just a small fraction of these capital costs. We proposed alternative routes of funding for projects.
‘However, voting for an increase to the LPT validates this entire system, and insulates central government from its responsibilities,’ he said.