Internet to ease shock of Waitakere rates

Waitakere City Council will try to cushion the shock for ratepayers by offering a website link to help them find the true cost of rates rises.

The council has lifted rates for 2006-07 for the average value home by 6.8 per cent to $1581.

In April the council wrote to residents telling them what their rates would be if the capital value system was adopted instead of the present land value system.

Some people seemed set for healthy rates decreases if the system changed.

However, on June 23 the council took heed of 400-odd public submissions against capital value and dropped the idea.

It went ahead with a fixed annual charge for wastewater of $350 plus a small variable component.

Finance committee deputy chairman Ross Clow said the council would spend the next 12 months looking at alternative rating systems.

But this year's rates would be different from those indicated in the letter sent to homeowners.

The council was offering access to the true amount via a special link through its website from next week. This would save people having to wait for the first rates notice in August.

The Manukau City Council, which changed its rating basis to annual value from land value, said it would supply a similar service for individual rates through its website from late this month.

The Auckland City Council said its website would give ratepayers information from July 17. North Shore City and Rodney District will not supply such information on their websites.