Penang assessment rate hike objections: The whittling-down exercise

Hearing sessions are taking place in Penang Island and mainland Penang to allow upset ratepayers to present their objections to the hefty assessment hikes from next year. One Penang Island city councillor said 50,000 written objections to the proposed hikes have been received.

But many people are unable to turn up at short notice for the objection hearings. They might be working or they may not have transport to travel for these objection hearings, especially if they are senior citizens living far away from where the hearings are being held.

In a couple of cases in Butterworth, ratepayers, including senior citizens, have been told to travel to a sports complex in Bertam, 15km from where they live. How are they to go? And what about those who are working? Are they supposed to take leave from work?

In the notice informing complainants about the hearings, they are also told that, if they do not turn up for these hearings, the council will assume they are not interested in pursuing their objections.

This is ridiculous! The complainants have already provided the reasons for their objections in the online forms. Why should they now be forced to turn up and repeat what they have said? Either you accept their reasons or you don’t. Don’t make them waste time on silly hearings. If more information is required, just let them know.

Some people have to earn a living and can’t take time off from work just like that. Isn’t this just a way of whittling down the number of objections?

And for what? So that the councils can earn an extra RM40m-RM50m extra revenue annually to blow away on an expensive controversial underpass (at Mount Erskine), a RM300m landslide-prone highway (Bukit Kukus), a multimillion-ringgit convention centre (on the mainland) and questionable IT spending – instead of doing more to improve public transport infrastructure.

One complainant found that the council had raised the annual value of his property by 60% even though his apartment complex had been hit by floods on several occasions (due to inadequate drainage to support overdevelopment). The unpredictable floods make it unsafe to park vehicles at the basement level. These floods can knock out power supply and stop the lifts from functioning, incurring thousands of ringgit in damages. Surely, the value of the apartment can’t have soared that much – if at all it has risen. This is the kind of nonsense that has left ratepayers fuming.

Is the state government even aware of the widespread anger over these rate hikes that one city councillor has highlighted? Read Councillor Chee Heng Leng’s speech at a Penang Island City Council meeting.

She said: “… the recent exercise of assessment rate revaluations, where we received more than 50,000 written objections (from 17% of ratepayers) show that we were not prepared for the level of anger and dissatisfaction from ratepayers. A participatory council would have started at least a year-long dialogue, educated citizens, corrected misunderstandings, got feedback and made changes to suit the different circumstances of a diverse ratepayer base.”

This is a letter from one such ratepayer who filed an objection:

Yang Amat Berhormat Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang Encik Chow Kon Yeow,

Terlebih dahulu saya ingin meminta maaf atas tindakan untuk menulis surat ini. Ini adalah kerana dalam ruang Facebook YAB, nampaknya tidak terdapat comment function yang membolehkan saya untuk memberikan feedback terhadap isu ini.

Notis MBPP/MBSP untuk menghadiri mesyuarat mengemukakan Alasan Bantahan hanya diterima pada 31 November 2019 (Sabtu) di mana mesyuarat berkenaan adalah pada 4hb Disember 2019 (Rabu).

Malangnya pada 4hb Disember saya tidak berada di Pulau Pinang.

Bukan senang, malah, amatlah susah untuk mencari seorang wakil yang sesuai dan memahami isu kenaikan cukai pintu untuk mewakili saya dalam kesuntukan masa 4 hari ini.

Saya dan juga pemilik harta yang menghadapi keadaan yang sama amatlah kecewa dengan tindakan ini yang kurang munasabah.

Diharap notis baru dengan tempoh sekurang-kurangnya 2 minggu sebelum mesyuarat akan diserahkan kepada semua pemilik termasuk saya supaya membolehkan kami menghadiri mesyuarat baru. Tanpa menghadiri mesyuarat ini bermakna sebagai pembayar cukai, kami telah hilang kelayakan untuk membuat bantahan terhadap kadar kenaikan cukai pintu yang mendadak ini.

Saya amat berharap kesempatan kami menghadiri mesyuarat ini tidak dirampas semata-mata kerana notis yang dikeluarkan terlalu lewat. Saya memang mengambil berat, memandang tinggi dan menanti-nantikan mesyuarat mustahak ini.

https://www.mintdentalcentre.com/xanax-alprazolam-uk/

Sekianlah terima kasih.

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