HOUSEHOLDERS in Limerick will be paying an increase in their property tax – but in a contradictory twist, they will have smaller bills for the charge than they had last year.
After a massive falling out between the two main parties in the City and County Council over the tax earlier this week. a compromise on a Fine Gael proposal to increase the Local Property Tax was passed on Thursday afternoon.
Fine Gael had originally proposed a levy of 10 per cent above the national rate, as they are allowed to do and which they did last year.
But Fianna Fail had proposed that Limerick people should only pay the basic rate set in national legislation, while Sinn Fein had proposed that the council cut the tax for Limerick folk by 15 per cent, a move for which the members are also empowered.
But when that meeting broke up in acrimony, a second was called to fix a rate and Fine Gael were this time successful in a proposal to increase the tax above the vase rate by 7.5 per cent.
But for householders, this will mean a reduction on the amount they had to pay last year, when the LPT was set at 10 per cent above the national rate.
This means people on the lowest band of €90 per annum will be paying €96.75 next year as opposed to the €99 bill they received this year,
