Cllr John O’Heney says he will vote against any proposed increase to Commercial Rates in the upcoming Council Budget Meeting on December 6th.
The budget meeting was to be held on Friday Nov 29th but Councillors voted to postpone the meeting due to the workload on council staff in respect of the General Election.
Cllr O’Heney is standing as an Independent candidate in the South Tipperary Constituency and says that businesses are struggling to survive and dealing with pressures due to high electricity costs, VAT, rising wages and stocking issues.
The Independent Councillor also accepts that extra money is necessary for the provision of council services and says the fault is with the Government for not increasing funding to local authorities in the recent budget.
Cllr David Dunne revealed at the special council meeting on the Housing crisis that the Council Executive is seeking to increase rates by 6% to raise an additional €2M – the final proposal on December 6th may be a lower rate or accompanied by special early payment discount option.
