Galway Bay fm newsroom - Galway City Council has voted against raising the Local Property Tax for 2021.
City Chief Executive Brendan McGrath recommended to council members that the tax be raised by the maximum amount of 15 percent, to counteract some of the lost revenue which the council will suffer this year due to Covid-19.
Councillors were told that this 15 percent increase would be bring in an additional 1.24 million euro in funding for the local authority and would only cost the average taxpayer an additional 36 euro per annum.
Brendan McGrath told councillors that the city was facing into a "horrendous" budget due to COVID-19 - partly because the local authority has only collected 13.7 million euro from a total of 37.8 million euro which it levied in rates bills in February.
He added that the city council doesn't know exactly how much support it will be receiving from Government in the form of a six month rates waiver to offset the scale of the losses.
A motion to adopt the 15 percent property tax increase was proposed by Green Party Councillor Martina O’Connor and seconded by her party colleague Niall Murphy - the motion was defeated by 13 votes to three, with two absent.
Meanwhile, a motion to leave the tax unchanged was proposed by Labour Party Councillor Neil McNelis and seconded by Mayor Mike Cubbard, which was successfully passed by 12 votes to four with two absent.
