This article is from page 10 of the 2014-09-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A NUMBER of vital local projects may now be put on hold following the decision to cut the property tax in Clare by 15 per cent.
Councillors at last Friday’s special meeting of Clare County Council voted by a majority 17 to 10 in favour of introducing the full 15 per cent cut available to the local authority.
The decision means people who valued their house at € 100,000 or less will receive a reduction amounting to roughly 23 cent per week – but the council will lose € 1.56 million in funding for services.
Ahead of the vote, the executive of council circulated a list of possible outcomes to councillors – depending on how the vote went. This document listed 20 separate projects, located in each of the four electoral areas, that would not be possible if the full 15 per cent reduction was applied.Mayor of Clare, John Crowe (FG), said yesterday that it was inevitable that services would be effected.
“There is no doubt that people will suffer. We were talking about € 1.5 million to be split between the four electoral areas – we all know about the massive list of jobs that are waiting to be done across the county with estates to be taken in charge, lighting to be repaired and services provided. The € 1.5 million would have had a big impact on the work we could do, but when you break it down, it would have meant less than € 30 a year to the 91 per cent of people on the lower rate, which isn’t a lot,” he said.
Fine Gael and number of independent councillors voted against the reduction with Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the majority of independents voting for the reduction.
“Our budget is very risky at this stage. We have so many services that are crying out for funding – with road, hedge cuttings, libraries, and our beaches – and I saw this as funding that we could use at our discretion to provide these services better,” said Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind).
“I would not like to describe what motivates anyone else to vote, but I will not engage in auction politics. I will always take the decision that I feel is in the long-term benef t of the county and I feel that this would have been a better county if we had that money to spend on vital services.”