Inside story: Why councillors were unanimous in introducing the view tax on high rise unit owners

Why are high-rise unit owners paying a “view tax”? There are all sorts of views on this. HERE ARE THE REAL REASONS.

Inside story: Why councillors were unanimous in introducing the view tax on high rise unit owners. Picture by Richard Gosling

Why has the Gold Coast City Council approved the “view tax”? Furious residents are putting up all sorts of theories. Here’s the clearest possible view on what happened at City Hall.

Documents show a host of new rating categories – including building levels – in a resolution passed unanimously by councillors on the June 7 after a special budget meeting.

Mayor Tom Tate put up the motion – even though he was opposed to a “fundamentally flawed” tax when campaigning in 2013.

The seconder was Brooke Patterson. Yes, that’s correct – the Southport councillor who hosted the town hall meeting and regarded by some residents as the people’s champion on this.

Councillor Brooke Patterson — called a town-hall meeting on the view tax. Picture Glenn Hampson.

Some unit owners see this is CEO Tim Baker’s tax, and that the councillors – all of them backed the motion – felt pressure from the bureaucrats.

Here’s the real deal. At the closed doors meeting, councillors were given these options:

* do nothing and leave the rating system as it is.

* introduce the tax but “staggered” so in the increases are eased in across four years.

* deliver the full increase in this year’s budget.

The presentation put this not as a rate increase, rather a “rate re-categorisation”.

They were told resident owners in the lower floors had been paying the same rates as those in penthouses – yet those in higher floors had their unit values increase much higher.

Rates across the city are tied to the land values which are determined by the state government. Council makes adjustments in delivering increases. The Mayor wants to deliver the rates below CPI – and he does not want the burbs to carry the burden.

Councillors left with the view that across a decade, those living in the highest high-rise units were “asking for special treatment”. This inequity should be corrected now. Best to do that before the eve of the next poll.

“More than 70 per cent of community are in suburban homes. They’ve had to pay their rate increases. People in penthouses haven’t,” a council source says.

A graphic explaining the view tax being introduced by the Gold Coast City Council.

Councillors learned investor owners pay the rate increase, this cost handed on to renters.

Your columnist has visited older high-rise buildings and met with resident owners. Some are cash poor and asset rich, their 30-year-old carpets needing more than a shampoo.

They are understandably furious. A City letter is not the best way of delivering this news.

Councillors are upset with “town-hall Brooke”. “It was an unanimous view to do it now. It wasn’t cool what she has done,” a colleague says.

But Ms Patterson told your columnist: “I voted for it, that’s why I got absolutely smashed at the town hall. But basically it was one of my promises before the election that any matter that residents want to have a town hall, I would host and I would be available.

“And someone actually sent me a screenshot and said, ‘Hey Brooke, we want a town hall on this’. It wasn’t easy, I can assure you.”

As for the view from here for high-rise residents on overturning the tax? About as bright as the recent fog.

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Originally published as Inside story: Why councillors were unanimous in introducing the view tax on high rise unit owners