Tipp property tax to rise

The Local Property Tax in Tipperary will increase by 10% next year after councillors clashed on the issue at this week's meeting of Tipperary Co Council. If you are currently paying €405 for your Local Property Tax, this amount will rise by €40.50, leaving your final new bill at €445.50.

Yielding an extra €1.2 million for the council to spend on services in 2020, the new demand will equate to an average increase of 36 cent per week per household. Councillors voted in favour of the increase on Monday by a margin of 21 votes to 14.

 

The council's executive had originally sought a 15% increase in Tipperary's LPT for next year. This followed a vote by councillors last year to lower the tax. Cllr Marie Murphy (FG) proposed a compromise increase of 10%.
The council projected income of €9.5 million in locally-raised LPT and a further €16.5 million from the equalisation fund of tax raised in other counties.

 

Tipperary is the highest beneficiary in the country from the equalisation fund. Raising the LPT by 10% - the same level as it was in 2018 – would amount to a General Municipal Allocation of almost €223,000 for the Nenagh district. The GMA is discretionary spending for council members and used for the likes of festivals, road and footpath projects, job creation initiatives, Tidy Towns grants and playground improvements.

 

Several councillors spoke against any increase in the LPT, which they said would impact on local people who are struggling financially. Cllr Séamus Morris (Ind) hit out at the view that Tipperary is dependent on the LPT equalisation fund, saying almost €50 million raised in motor tax and property tax in Tipperary is plied into central funds. Only half of this was being returned to the county in LPT.

 

“It's important that the narrative is changed; Tipperary is well able to pay for itself,” Cllr Morris told the meeting. “This notion that Tipperary is the poorest relation in the country has to be stopped.”