Pardubice will raise the property tax for companies, the money will go to repair roads

In a few days, the people of Pardubice will find out how much more they will pay in property tax starting this year. However, the city hall will not be responsible for the higher number on the receipt, but the state, which initiated the tax increase.

However, the management of Pardubice does not want to be completely left behind. However, in their desire to get more tax revenue, they are not targeting individuals, but owners of businesses and big stores. “The state has taken quite a bit of tax money from us. We don’t want to compensate for the decline in Pardubáce,” said František Brendl, councilor for Together for Pardubice.

The city council has already approved a proposal for a general measure that increases the local coefficient from 2 to 5 for the calculation of real estate tax in some localities. According to politicians, the measure only applies to important industrial and commercial zones. The new coefficient should apply with effect from January. The city should thus receive tens of millions of extra crowns.

“We are reacting to the change in the law on real estate tax, which now allows us to adjust the real estate tax coefficient for selected and specifically specified territories. In our case, these are large industrial zones and the most extensive commercial zones, which have the greatest impact on the infrastructure,” said Deputy Mayor Jakub Rychtecký from Žijeme pro Pardubice.

Politicians assume that business and shop owners will not like the relatively drastic price increase. But at the same time, they say they are not worried that the increase in prices would be reflected in the prices of goods. “Vsetín did something similar recently, and despite the initial resistance, nothing happened at all.” It must be added that most of the companies and sales chains are owned by companies from abroad, where they also pay taxes, and we as the town hall actually don’t have much of a chance to get a contribution from them for the running of the city,” said Mayor Jan Nadrchal from the ANO movement.

“Why did we raise the tax so drastically? Come on, come on!’

The price increase will apply to industrial zones in Staré Čívice, Pardubice, Semtínzone, Parama and large shopping areas. It is around the Globus, Albert, Kaufland, Lidl, Paláce Pardubice hypermarkets or the new shopping area in Svítkov, which includes Billa and Mountfield. “We will apply the increased tax only to industrial and commercial zones, which have been identified as the most burdensome on the transport infrastructure or ecological aspect of the city and which put pressure on the capacities of schools, healthcare and other civic amenities,” Rychtecký said.

According to the councillors, for example, the children of foreign workers fill a significant part of the places in Pardubice schools. There are 819 foreign students in elementary schools and 219 foreign children in kindergartens registered in schools in Pardubice. “More than half of elementary schools register more than eight percent of students as foreigners. Just for the idea of ​​building one place in an elementary school, the cost is about 1.2 million crowns,” calculated Rychtecký.

According to politicians, the problem is with large companies in connection with waste disposal, parking or traffic jams in the vicinity of hypermarkets and businesses.

“We will want to use this extra money for the city coffers for the necessary investments in civic amenities, such as parking capacities or costs associated with the construction and extension of schools and kindergartens,” added Rychtecký, who somewhat idiosyncraticly explained why the tax would rise so sharply.

“We said to ourselves that if so, then so be it. We’re actually glad that the government gave us this tool that the town halls didn’t have before,” added Deputy Rychtecký, who, however, is also angry with Petr Fiala’s government for taking tens of millions of crowns from the Pardubice budget every year. Indeed, the cabinet pushed for a reduction in the share of cities and municipalities in some taxes on the income of individuals, legal entities or VAT and gambling.

In addition, the mayor of the city, Jan Nadrchal, points out that the property tax has not increased in Pardubice in recent years, while the profits of most companies have grown dramatically in the last three years. “Also, during the last ten years, the market value of the property of property owners in industrial and commercial zones has increased significantly, but the property tax has remained the same and has not increased accordingly,” said Jan Nadrchal.

The councilors’ proposal will most likely pass without any problems on Monday, because the entire coalition agreed on it. Not even the opposition of the largest opposition party, the ODS, will apparently change anything.

“We will not support the proposal. It is another burden on the business world. In addition, we feel that it is sewn with a hot needle, and it bothers us that the councilors set only one coefficient. It should be graded according to how individual zones burden the city’s infrastructure,” said representative for ODS Dušan Stránský, who also has one specific complaint.

“We don’t understand why Starzone at Černá za Bory is not needed in the proposal for an increase. The logistics center there is certainly a very significant burden on its surroundings,” added the politician.