Rotorua businesses will be heartened by the District Council's plans to reduce the unfair business differential in the coming year's Annual Plan, says the Employers and Manufacturers Association.
Association executive officer Peter Atkinson said the proposal in the Rotorua District Council draft Annual Plan for 2014/15 to reduce the rates bill that businesses pay from 2.1 times more than residential ratepayers, down to 1.9 times, was a step in the right direction.
"It's only a slight change, but it's in the right direction and the many motels, hotels and other businesses on which the city relies will welcome it.
"Charging them higher rates than residential ratepayers is like killing off the goose that lays the golden eggs," he told district councillors during Annual Plan hearings this week.
"The slight reduction of this burden has never been based on the services businesses receive from the council, and it's simply not true that our small to medium size businesses, which employ a third of the country's workers, can afford to pay more than residential ratepayers."
