Let’s have sidewalks. Cities in the region are raising property taxes en masse

Realistically, the owner of a three-room apartment on Zlín’s Southern Slopes will pay 3,034 crowns next year. This year, he paid 769 crowns for the same apartment.

“The city has not increased some of its revenue items for many years. That’s why it is necessary to increase such income in leaps and bounds,” pointed out Mayor Jiří Korec.

The city uses the funds obtained in this way for the operation of individual city institutions as well as for investments and property maintenance. “From buildings to sidewalks,” the mayor indicated.

Next year, the increase will also be reflected in the local areas, which will receive fifteen million more. So they will decide on the amount of forty million.

A novelty in Zlín is the introduction of a local coefficient in the amount of 2 to 2.9 for marginal local parts. For example, the lowest coefficient of 2 will apply to Salaš, Klečůvka and Lhotka.

“On average, each owner of a property intended for housing in the city of Zlín will pay an additional two thousand kroner per year,” said Tomáš Melzer, a spokesman for the town hall. The city will receive roughly 139 million crowns in the budget instead of the current 59 million.

The issue of whether or not to increase the local property tax rate has been heavily considered by cities. The majority were preparing for this step before the government decided on the across-the-board increase, which is part of the consolidation package.

We don’t want to burden the citizens, he says from Kroměříž

This figuratively messed up the heads of the town halls, because it is another burden transferred to the residents. You will pay more everywhere, it’s just a matter of how much.

Kroměříž is the only one of the former district towns in the Zlín Region to leave the local coefficient at 1. “An increase is out of the question,” responded the mayor of Kroměříž, Tomáš Opatrný. “In view of the government’s decision to increase the property tax, we do not want to further burden citizens.”

Nevertheless, the tax will rise from 430 to about 750 crowns for a 70-meter apartment.

Like other mayors, however, he does not agree with the state increasing the property tax. “It should have remained entirely within the competence of local governments,” said Opatrný.

The coefficient will also change in Uherské Hradiště. “The essential parameter is that we unify coefficients throughout the city, that means we introduce a local coefficient of 2.2,” said the mayor of Hradiště, Stanislav Blaha. Until now, in the city, they had a different amount of tax in individual local parts.

In Vsetín, the coefficient will increase to 2.5 for housing, and for retail chains it will have a value of 5. “Customers from the entire region come to shop in them, and this increases the traffic load and also the city’s related costs,” explained Mayor Jiří Čunek.

The same step, i.e. higher taxation of companies, is being planned in Zlín. It will depend on the size of their property in the city. On average, these amounts will be higher than for citizens’ housing. For cities, a tax increase will bring money to the budget for investments, maintenance of greenery or perhaps the operation of the city police. At the same time, they will share revenues with the state.

Zlín’s disgraces include the railway station, the former court and the hideous underpass (March 21, 2023):