During a stroll along the beach and Tutere St south during the week we noticed an interesting but rather derelict house built in 1939 at number 51 and another small but well maintained house from 1940 on the other side a little further down at number 66. So we looked up the valuations, and it was a real surprise:
Both sections are the same size — just under 700 sq metres and the difference in land value is solely because of which side of the street they are on. It couldn’t be claimed that 51 gets a better view from either aspect, but it is beside the beach.
Whoever owns number 51 is paying $6,517 in council rates a year and the impost on number 66 is $3,350.
The rates now being paid for no 51 would now be equivalent to the total cost of the land and house when it was built in 1930’s. Current rates are understated by Council’s separate water rates and refuse disposal charges. Lower rates for Kapiti are needed but the current Councillors continue on expensive grandiose schemes such as fast-forwarding Otaraua Park.
Precisely — another reason for the Dougherty & Rowan water meters was that the charges could be separated out from the Rates bill so it looked like the Rates weren’t going up so much. Abandonment of the rubbish collection service meant people were getting one less service with no reduction in the Rates.
Tax or borrow and spend — the Council bosses don’t care about the impact on ratepayers, they want the world and they want it now.
The rates will be over $10k in 8 years time + water + rubbish +berm mowing unless the council is forced to limit rates increases to that of inflation.
The council is investigating other ways of driving income from the ratepayer. Like reducing traffic speeds to 30 km per hour and then issuing speeding tickets on behalf of the police. Just a follow on from checking WOF’s and Rego I guess.
This is wealth taxation by stealth. The issue that I find hard to get my head around is the fact that receive the same services as other ratepayers and there is a differential in rate able value based on the value of my property. Water I pay for as a usage. Rubbish is private payment. Why then should I pay more or less for the lack of transparent accountable based services that we should have as a right. There is no avenue for redress anywhere. It won’t be too long before no one can live in Kapiti due to the rate demand. Where will you be then KCDC ?