Rotorua's council has embarked on a process of rates remissions for local businesses that at least one councillor says could be illegal.
With the first instalment of rates under the Rotorua District Council's new capital value rating system due by August 20, the council is scrambling to find a way to assist a number of businesses faced with what council chief executive Peter Guerin calls "the unintended consequences of capital value rating".
On June 29, councillors voted 10 to 3 in favour of going ahead with capital value rating, flying in the face of serious opposition from the Rotorua business community who said the new system unfairly penalised businesses.
As a last-minute compromise, councillors said businesses could apply for rates relief under the council's Remission of Rates in Extraordinary Circumstances policy.
Councillors Mark Gould, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait and Charles Sturt voted against the move to capital value rating that replaces the old land value-based system.