ACT Government taken to court over allegedly dodgy land valuations
August 7th, 2009 at 12:07pm
From the folk over at the state-owned, state-run media comes word that the ACT Government is being taken to court by people who think their rates are just a tad excessive.
The owners of the Tuggeranong Hyperdome have taken the ACT Revenue Office to court over claims its assessment of the unimproved value of the land was excessive.
[..]
[They] objected to the unimproved land value assessment in 2007 of $41.5 million which was used to calculate the rates payable.The applicant says the unimproved land value more than doubled between January 2005 and January 2007 and a more appropriate assessment was $25 million.
[..]
It is understood similar proceedings have been launched by Westfield, the owner of the Woden and Belconnen shopping centres.
If this is successful, how many more people will get independent valuations of their land? Could this be one of the Stanhope government’s amazing budget-hole-plugging measures…if so, surely it would just be easier to legitimately increase rates the way the Green balance-of-power-holders would do it…by adding a global warming levy of say, 3000%. That would win many brownie points with the Greens, and seriously test how many people really believe that humans are responsible for non-existent warming. It’s not as politically expedient though.
If this case is proven, then I will have to praise the Stanhope government for reaching new levels of sheer clever sneakiness.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Samuel's Editorials
