Limerick Post exclusive
LIMERICK householders, both private and local authority owned, are in for a shock – an annual poll tax of 100 euro is being mooted to fund City Council.
Currently in draft form, the city manager, Tom Mackey, will shortly present his intention to city councillors, to impose a “community charge” of 100 euro on each of the approximately 23,000 houses in the city environs.
The tenants in City Council housing estates and lower income households, will be required to pay an additional two euro on their weekly rent.
The drive will secure some 2.5million euro for the strapped for cash council, in its effort to strike a rate for the city in the coming Estimates for the city.
The city manager’s directive comes after a recent meeting between the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley and all of the country’s city and county managers
While it has been anticipated for some time that the Minister, who will be cutting back on all local authority funding in the December budget, would introduce a property tax, it is understood that Limerick City Council’s “community charge” would be less than a government property tax.
While majority support will be sought from the city councillors, if it is not forthcoming, the Minister can make a directive to take power away from the council and impose his own charge on properties throughout the country.
With local elections out of the way for the next five years, opposition to the new community charge may not be as strong as might be expected but one local politician who does not want to be named at this stage, said he has “some concern with the content of the manager’s proposal and will be seeking full details of it in the coming weeks”.
