INDEPENDENT mediation between Launceston Airport and the Northern Midlands Council is expected to solve a three-year rates dispute by early 2016.
The council met with federal Local Government Minister Paul Fletcher, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s chief of staff and opposition infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Thursday.
Following the meetings, Mr Fletcher sent a release stating that the Commonwealth would engage an independent expert to assess what land the airport could be charged for, and how much.
The expert will identify what airport sites were subject to ex-gratia payments, made in lieu of rates, value the land, assess what rates should be applied and calculate a suitable figure to be paid to the council.
‘‘The independent expert will provide the Commonwealth with a determination of the amount that Launceston Airport is required to pay to Northern Midlands Council, in accordance with the lease provisions,’’ Mr Fletcher said....... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
If some of these 'groups' are not actually delivering the social and cultural dividend they purport to be doing so, as contentious as that may be, it is perhaps time to look again at which ones are justifiably being subsidised .
Currently universities are in the spotlight in so much as the one in Tasmania is not only revelling in its 'exemption' but fronting up for free handout of land. After that there are retirement villages and medical centres testing the water for a 'free ride'.
The properties, and the operations carried out on them, are all users of the services other ratepayers pay for. An independent assessor might well, in some cases, suggest that like airports some may need to make ex-gratia payments in the way airports are required to.
It'll be interesting to see if there is a council out there prepared to look at this issue for the benefit of the wider ratepayer community.
Universities, for instance, need to be good corporate citizens in line with the high moral ground that they claim for themselves. If they're not fiscal contributors to the communities they rely upon to survive they depend upon a social licence from the community and without either they become insensitive to their obligations to their constituency.
All this applies to a range of other 'operations' when and where the social dividend is unclear or at times ambiguous.
North Midlands Council Ratepayers clearly have a Mayor and Council willing to represent their ratepayers. Mayor Downie is to be commended for taking the council's rate issue seriously and following through.
While the issue is not quite solved, a resolution does seem to be not too far away. Congratulations Mayor Downie!
An interesting by-product of the 'rate struggle' here is the notion of the implied moral obligation to pay-up that puts a range of non-ratepayer organisations, institutions, etc. in the spotlight.
If some of these 'groups' are not actually delivering the social and cultural dividend they purport to be doing so, as contentious as that may be, it is perhaps time to look again at which ones are justifiably being subsidised .
Currently universities are in the spotlight in so much as the one in Tasmania is not only revelling in its 'exemption' but fronting up for free handout of land. After that there are retirement villages and medical centres testing the water for a 'free ride'.
The properties, and the operations carried out on them, are all users of the services other ratepayers pay for. An independent assessor might well, in some cases, suggest that like airports some may need to make ex-gratia payments in the way airports are required to.
It'll be interesting to see if there is a council out there prepared to look at this issue for the benefit of the wider ratepayer community.
Universities, for instance, need to be good corporate citizens in line with the high moral ground that they claim for themselves. If they're not fiscal contributors to the communities they rely upon to survive they depend upon a social licence from the community and without either they become insensitive to their obligations to their constituency.
All this applies to a range of other 'operations' when and where the social dividend is unclear or at times ambiguous.
No comments:
Post a Comment