Charity stung by rates bill
Ozanam House, a home away from home for thousands of cancer patients for more than 50 years, is reeling after receiving its Palmerston North City Council rates bill.
In the past the trust has automatically qualified for a general rates remission, worth about $18,000 a year, to cover its general rates and has paid the balance of $26,000 for rubbish, water and other services.
But the city council rates remission advisory panel has decided the charity has grown too big, covering more than
1.5 hectares of land, to qualify for remission under the Local Government Rating Act.
Council chief financial officer and panel member Grant Elliott said the trust’s application this year was considered under the council’s own policy, which it did not fit because it did not have residents of Palmerston North as its focus. The people who use the trust’s dozen houses come mainly from Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki for radiotherapy at Palmerston North Hospital.
Ozanam House was already grappling with the prospect of what would happen if it lost some of those users. Cancer treatment machines are planned to be set up in those centres so cancer patients with noncomplex treatment plans are able to stay at home rather than travel to Palmerston North. The rates panel decided it would ease the rates shock by billing the trust one-quarter of the new bill this year, stepping up to the full amount within four years.
Trust secretary Roger Clark said although the houses were used by people from outside Palmerston North, local suppliers and shops benefited from the trust’s activities and the spending by its temporary residents.
‘‘I was a little bit shocked to be
honest and I wondered whether there was any other organisation that they’d looked upon similar.’’
The Rating Act lists land that is not rateable, including churches, schools, hospitals, and types of Ma¯ ori land.
Institutions providing relief for ‘‘persons in need’’ were also covered, so long as the land area was less then 1.5ha.
Elliott said Ozanam House’s footprint had grown too much above that threshold to be ignored, so its application had to be considered under the council’s own policy.
Ozanam House did not comply because the users were not city residents.
‘‘We are certainly not picking on them. We are sympathetic to what they do, but feel they don’t fit the criteria.’’
Elliott said the panel thought it would be unfair to classify the property as fully rateable in one year, so had decided on the fouryear transition.
Trust chairman Bill Bly said Ozanam House would fight the decision, which did not seem to respect community values.
‘‘We’re not giving up on it. The principle is worth fighting for.
‘‘I think they need to be a bit more open minded in their interpretation of the regulations. ‘‘We’re not a motel. ‘‘We’re very much a charity ... and all we’ve done is provide the facilities for the people who need it.’’
The trust planned to write to mayor Grant Smith putting its case.
Elliott said the best thing the trust could do was make a submission on next year’s Annual Plan asking for the remissions policy to be broadened so their contribution to the wider community could be considered.
For the 2018-19 year, the council gave 30 organisations about $154,000 of rating remissions on top of what was required under the Rating Act.