Fortune Dubs Property Tax Vote Three-Card Trick

On the marina front…

atest press release from Cllr Tom Fortune, issued on Wednesday, October 12th 2022…

Cllr Tom Fortune described Monday’s Council meeting on Property Tax as a three-card trick.

He says the decision taken was the wrong decision and was unfair to the people of Wicklow.

“To put it in context, the finance director of Wicklow County Council presented the numbers to the members, making a big play on £1.1m euro discretionary funding that would be divided across five districts, resulting in €208,197 for four districts (there are six councillors in each district) and €277,596 for Bray (eight councillors).

“This would just about pay for a feasibility study in each district and this is where the three-card trick is played. We were told it would pay for footpaths and other works; this is totally disingenuous. We were told that the rate would be 6% meaning 106% of the base rate and that this was not an increase, even though it was 6% above the base rate. The equalisation element that was retained this year of €3.7m was taken by the department and allocated to building, the department reducing building allocation by almost €4m. Property tax was never intended for this.

“The meeting was then opened to the members. Fianna Fail immediately proposed the 6% which was seconded by Fine Gael. This was a pre-arranged strategy to ensure this would be the first vote therefore making sure there would be no other votes on any other proposal. A discussion followed this proposal that lasted for two hours. There were a number of other proposals — Cllr Behan proposed a reduction of 15%, which was seconded by Cllr Fortune; Cllr Snell proposed that we stay at the base rate, which was a reduction of 6%, which was seconded by Cllr Kavanagh.

“I stated that I did not support property tax as it was constructed unfairly and is very unfair on the people of Wicklow.

“After the long discussion, the first proposal made by Fianna Fail and seconded by Fine Gael was put to the members. What was voted on was: ‘To retain the property tax at 2022 level, which is an increase on the base rate of 6%’. This was the exact proposal put to the the members by the meeting administrator. This was accepted by 23 votes to 9 (Cllrs Kavanagh, Leonard, Behan, Snell, O’Neill, Dermot O’Brien, McManus, Scott and myself) voted against this very unfair proposal. Because this vote was passed the other proposals could not be voted on.”

Councillor Fortune says this was the strategy put in place before the meeting. The quick proposal was to block any of us having our proposals voted on. This is how the meeting progressed.

Cllr Fortune says this was not a good or fair decision for the people of Wicklow. “At a time when people are struggling with increased costs for every little thing, when the government are putting in family supports, 23 members of Wicklow County council decide not to reduce the burden of property tax.

“I’m flabbergasted to see the Labour Party, Social Democrats, one Green Party member and two independent councillors supporting the FF/FG proposal. Some of the 23 councillors in past 24 hours have been attacking the nine councillors that voted against their proposal. This is very disingenuous.

“The people of Wicklow were due and entitled to a break; however, 23 councillors decided not to give it to them.”