Businesses and individuals are angry about changes the Waitaki District Council wants to make to its rating system.
The changes will have a big impact on residential, business and farming properties.
In particular, changes to the way the uniform annual general charge (UAGC) is levied on properties came under fire at a hearing of submissions yesterday on the council's 2009-19 long term council community plan.
The UAGC is a set charge levied on all properties. However, some ratepayers do not pay it if they are one of a number on one title.
For example, homeowners at the Kaik and Waitaki Bridge camps on the Waitaki River and at Gemmels Crossing on the Kakanui River only pay one UAGC.
Under the change proposed by the council, each of those houses would be levied a UAGC, along with more than one house on farms, more than one flat or house on a residential property and businesses with more than one tenant on single titles.
The rate for the Gemmels Crossing camp, which has 26 cribs, could rise from $1621 a year to $14,552.
Gemmels Crossing homeowners Malcolm and Kathleen Vince, of Oamaru, questioned the fairness of the proposed change, particularly when the homes were not occupied permanently, received few services from the council and owners supplied their own facilities.
The Gemmels Crossing camp committee said the camp had no electricity, no water supply, and each house had its own septic tank. Each house should not be subject to paying a UAGC.
Waitaki Bridge Park homeowners Peter and Daphne Sanderson, of Dunedin, said it was unacceptable to expect camp homeowners to afford such an increase in rates, questioning whether the council wanted the areas to become "overgrown ghost towns".
However, the Waihemo Community Board supported changes to the annual charge, saying it was fair the owners of properties such as holiday homes should pay it.
Board chairman Rod Philip said an annual rate of $58 for some owners of holiday homes was too low for the people-based services they could use.
Peter and Ann Senior have a property on Thames Highway which has a house and a small business building "no bigger than a single garage" and worth about $8000 rented by a dog groomer. He said rates on that property would rise by about 50% as a result of rating changes proposed by the council, including charging the business a uniform annual charge.
The Otago Chamber of Commerce did not believe the change should apply to commercial properties.
Oamaru businessman Tony Spivey sen described the change as "double dipping", and he urged the council to redesign its proposal. The current rating system, based on a combination of land and capital values, was fair, he said.
