The Auckland Council will urgently review the rates bills of the city’s churches after hundreds were issued huge rises.
One church in central Auckland, which asked not to be named, received an increase of 6900 percent, from $400 to $28,000.
The council issued new rates bills, without consultation, to the churches earlier this month, claiming many were using all or parts of their property for business, not religious purposes.
But the acting chair of the council’s Finance and Performance Committee, and Orakei ward councillor, Desley Simpson, said churches did not have to pay the new rates bills until councillors and the mayor could reach an agreement.
A spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, Lyndsay Freer, said if the church had to pay the new rates bills it would have a “huge impact.”
“It’s a lot of money we’re talking about and, for us, there’s a considerable lack of clarity.
“We understand that the rates are for premises on our properties that are not used specifically for the purposes of worship, but we do have many buildings and facilities that are used for pastoral and not-for-profit work.
“There really does need to be clarification around what would qualify and what wouldn’t.”
The Anglican Church says it was disappointed by the bills, and hopes to work things out with the council.
“Our ministry units and their facilities are valuable resources to our communities, and this decision would have a detrimental effect by inhibiting the services our ministry units could provide,” Bishop Ross Bay from the Anglican Diocese of Auckland told NZME.
“Auckland Council has responded well to us about this matter and we feel that we will be able to resolve it in a positive way.”
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