{"id":43749,"date":"2025-02-28T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/rates-must-be-down-20250226-2\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T06:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T04:20:24","slug":"rates-must-be-down-20250226-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/rates-must-be-down-20250226-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rates must be down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With the new property evaluations that have skyrocketed owing to the popularity of developments in the valley, surely the municipality can now, with all the extra high-end households, rather reduce our property rates and taxes, instead of seeing them rise again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><superbyline><br>\n <name>Philip Steyn, <\/name><\/superbyline><\/p>\n\n\n\n<address>Paarl<\/address>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the new property evaluations that have skyrocketed owing to the popularity of developments in the valley, surely the municipality can now, with all the extra high-end households, rather reduce our property rates and taxes, instead of seeing 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Our mission is simple yet powerful: to bring Drakenstein the latest news, impactful stories, and insightful opinions that reflect the heartbeat of the community we proudly serve.","email":"Paarlpost@novusmedia.co.za","telephone":"021 870 4600","legalName":"Novus Media (Pty) Ltd","foundingDate":"2025-01-01","vatID":"4100318916","taxID":"2000\/018234\/07","numberOfEmployees":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","minValue":"51","maxValue":"200"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/#\/schema\/person\/a6bacbbf05cd87ebb6a01c6c30b8bee0","name":"Paarl Post","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a90e0f4ff2d1bbf92287ca13f36b9cac38a348c1eca650799f4c51a2801a8d5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a90e0f4ff2d1bbf92287ca13f36b9cac38a348c1eca650799f4c51a2801a8d5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a90e0f4ff2d1bbf92287ca13f36b9cac38a348c1eca650799f4c51a2801a8d5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Paarl Post"},"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/author\/paarlpost\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48743,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/taking-from-peter-to-give-to-paul-20240228-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":0},"title":"Taking from Peter to give to Paul?","author":"Paarl Post","date":"1 March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The property evaluation debacle of 2021 has reared it\u2019s head again this past week, with the Drakenstein Municipality sticking to it\u2019s guns about the deflated valuations of rural (farming) properties, using \u201cspin-doctoring\u201d tactics to deny any claims","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49395,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/no-reason-for-upbeat-20240124-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":1},"title":"No reason for upbeat","author":"Paarl Post","date":"26 January 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Rademeyer\u2019s reply to Saartjies letter on the exorbitant amount of development that is scarring the face of our valley, I am still trying to figure out the positive aspects the ex-councillor is trying to point out about all of this.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51929,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/at-what-point-is-enough-enough-20230830-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":2},"title":"At what point is enough enough?","author":"Paarl Post","date":"1 September 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest public property in Paarl which the Drakenstein Municipality intends to rent out or sell, is the Boy Louw sports fields \u2013 for decades now a very popular sports facility playing host to sports clubs from across the valley.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108738,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/the-unfair-burden-of-municipal-costs\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":3},"title":"The unfair burden of municipal costs","author":"Paarl Post","date":"4 April 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In our valley, we face a growing problem. While everyone uses town services, only a small percentage of the population are paying for them, leaving the rest of us with higher property taxes and service fees. The new draft budget shows smaller increases than before, which is welcomed, but for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Letters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Your-paragraph-text.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Your-paragraph-text.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Your-paragraph-text.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Your-paragraph-text.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Your-paragraph-text.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51859,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/where-exactly-is-our-money-going-20230906-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":4},"title":"Where exactly is our money going?","author":"Paarl Post","date":"8 September 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The end of each month is an extremely bitter pill to swallow when I receive my municipal account. Paarl probably has the highest rates and taxes, and fees of any Western Cape municipality.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43841,"url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/valuations-a-blessing-or-burden-20250219-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43749,"position":5},"title":"Valuations: a blessing or burden?","author":"Paarl Post","date":"21 February 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The property valuation roll released recently reveals a startling reality: residential property values have skyrocketed by over 60% in many areas. While property investors may celebrate this apparent windfall the implications for the average homeowne","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Paarl Post","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43749"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=43749"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/paarlpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=43749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}