Louth councillors to decide whether to hike Local Property Tax rates
Louth County Council are inviting members of the public to have their input on the potential effects of varying the basic rate of the Local Property Tax.
Louth County Council will hold a special meeting early next month to decide whether or not to increase the rate of Local Property Tax (LPT) in 2025.
Each year elected representatives can agree to raise - or lower - the rate of LPT by up to 15pc, but Louth councillors have so far resisted the urge to add a discretionary hike to the tax, which was first introduced in 2013.
In that time 12 councils have increased their rate by the full 15pc and six have raised it by 10pc.
Councillors were due to vote on the issue at their September meeting, but Cllr Pio Smith proposed deferring the poll so that councillors and parties could discuss it and make an informed decision.
Acting Council Chief Executive, Joe McGuinness informed councillors that the local authority’s projected budget for 2025 would be down around €2m on this year’s, meaning they would have to raise LPT or commerical rates, or simply cut spending.
Cllr Smith told his colleagues that Longford County Council increased their LPT to bring in an additional €300,000. They then applied for a 10-year loan of €5m and used the money to apply for an array of government schemes that offer match-funding. He said the ultimate value, in terms of spending power, was in the region of €25m.
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Cathaoirleach, Cllr Kevin Callan said he would be happy to facilitate a special meeting on the issue, but stressed he was not in favour of increasing LPT to cover a shortfall in other funding.
A full 15pc increase in Louth would see households in the €90 band pay an extra 26c per week, or just over €13 per year. For those paying €225 per annum, the increase would be 65c, or €33.80 per annum.
Households who pay at a rate of €315 would see their tax rate increase by 91c, or €47.32 per annum.
The vast majority of Louth households fall into bands one and two, at 47.6pc and 24.4pc respectively. 18pc of householders pay the €315 rate and approximately 10pc pay at various rates above €315.
Apart from Louth, only four other councils have stuck to the base rate - Galway City Council, Galway County Council, Meath County Council and Westmeath County Council.
The four Dublin councils - Dublin City, Fingal, Dun Laoighaire Rathdown and South Dublin - are the only local authorities to have reduced their rates, but as house prices have steadily increased in the capital since 2013, they didn’t seen a fall in revenue as a result of those decreases.
It was agreed to hold a special meeting on October 8, immediately after the Dundalk Municipal District meeting on that date. The Council must come to a decision by October 15.
