Homeowners in city to pay full whack of property tax

The Local Property Tax will not be coming down for city householders next year after warnings this week that services and major projects could be hit by such a move.

City councillors voted on Wednesday not to give the go-ahead for a 15% cut in the property tax after Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, outlined the potential impacts of such a cut.

Earlier in the meeting, a report by the City Council’s Head of Finance, Edel McCormack showed that the benefit of a full 15% cut in the Local Property Tax (LPT) would be worth just 64 cent a week to the ‘average’ householder.

Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Independent councillor, Catherine Connolly, had supported the full 15% cut in the LPT for 2015 – councillors have the power to either increase or decrease the tax by 15%.

Ms McCormack told councillors that now and over the coming years, the Council would be more reliant than ever on local revenue streams – the 15% reduction would equate to a City Council budget cut of €1.257 million.

“We’re not in a poor financial position but we’re not in a wonderful one either,” said the Head of Finance. She said that on average a 1% reduction in the LPT would put just four cent per week into the pockets of householders.

Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, said that while the proposal on a 15% reduction in the LPT represented a difficult decision for councillors, the city needed the resources to maintain services, to advance strategic projects and to provide enterprise space.
“Our financial position is becoming more squeezed at a time when our city continues to grow at the rate of 1,000 people per year.

“We need the resources to fund the key areas relating to infrastructure, people and place. We want our city to keep pace with what’s ‘best in place’ for cities across the world,” said Brendan McGrath.

Sinn Féin councillor, Mairead Farrell, who had proposed the 15% reduction in the LPT, said that householders had been hit by tax after tax often forcing them into the hands of moneylenders.

“It’s time to do what we can do to help these people,” she said.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.