In the the Canberra Times even Treasurer Katy Gallagher is admitting she presides over incompetent muppets.
At issue is the ongoing debacle of land tax whereby whatever overpriced and rubber band powered computer system purchased from latter day carnival folk that calculates and levies the land tax in this town ran out of electrons with which to add new houses to the system.
So with some houses having paid no tax in 16 months the ACT Government is trying to shake down the home-owners for a cumulative back payment of $11 million. Bad enough even if we get the money back, but there’s $200,000 in lost interest to be considered.
They’ll need a new speed camera to pay for that.
- Treasurer Katy Gallagher said the ACT, which faces deficits of $770million over the next four years, could not afford to lose the money.
”I know this isn’t great to criticise your department but I’ve certainly felt that it had taken too long to address and, in pretty clear terms, I demanded that the problem be fixed.
”I’ve been made aware of it in the first quarter of this year so I’ve been probably watching it for six months,” Ms Gallagher said.
They’ve managed to get another 1,200 accounts into the system, just 800 to go.
UPDATED: Brendan Smyth is having a predictable huff on the issue.