The Auditor-General has reported on a loss of $3.7 million to ACT taxpayers because betterment taxes on four redevelopment projects were under-assessed.
It tends to confirm complaints going back almost two decades that organisations granted leases for one purpose were making windfalls when the lease purpose was changed for another purpose. Sporting and charitable groups, especially, have made unjustified windfalls by carving off part of their land for commercial and residential development. The practice must stop. The public is entitled to get back the maximum reasonably possible in these circumstances.
The present Attorney-General, Gary Humphries, has blamed the previous Labor administration because the projects under scrutiny were assessed in 1994.
The then Planning Minister, Bill Wood, has blamed administrators and the hiatus between a federal administration and self-government. That seems a lame excuse.
The question is now raised as to how many other developments (before and after 1994) have been under-assessed for betterment tax and how much more revenue has been lost that could have been spent on education, health and debt reduction. A review of past betterment assessments would be a good idea _ certainly as warranted as the second review into the Vitab fiasco. The important thing is to learn from what the auditor has pointed out and to ensure that no more public land assets get diverted through the failure to raise proper betterment taxes when land use changes.
The issue takes on further urgency when viewed in the context of a reducing territorial tax base and generally poor economic conditions in the territory. If governments fail to levy proper betterment it means more taxes or fewer government services elsewhere. It also means, in effect, that some developers are getting what amounts to a government grant without the grant appearing in public budget documents. This lack of transparency is troubling.