Page 1680 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 3 June 2014
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This will encourage people over 60 to move to more suitable accommodation as their life circumstances change. It will free up larger housing stock for families and it will bring flow-on benefits to the property market and to housing affordability.
In this Budget, concessions to assist low income households will also be expanded.
The Budget extends eligibility for the sewerage rebate to Low Income Health Care Card holders, and the taxi subsidy will also increase.
Local businesses will benefit from the acceleration of the Government’s payroll tax reform. The threshold rises further to $1.85 million in 2014-15—the highest threshold in the country.
Businesses with a payroll of $2 million will save a further $6,850 in their payroll tax bill, and 40 additional Canberra businesses join the 23,000 who are excluded from paying payroll tax at all.
This takes the payroll tax cuts delivered by this Government in the last two years to nearly $25,000 per annum for every Canberra business that pays payroll tax.
Other initiatives in the Budget include a harmonisation of our payroll tax legislation with other jurisdictions; and introducing a new, fairer rating structure for land tax that slashes the marginal tax rates and introduces a fixed charge component to provide greater equity between the revenue raised from houses and units.
This Budget invests in the growth of our economy.
A growing economy is vital to maintaining our way of life and supporting our community—a growing economy creates jobs and allows the Government to fund important services and infrastructure.
The capital program announced in this Budget, $2.5 billion over four years, is the largest ever by an ACT government.
It will progress a range of transformational projects for our city—Capital Metro, the Australia Forum convention centre, the City to the Lake project and new court facilities, to name but some of the projects funded.
It also funds a broad range of smaller projects across the Territory, such as the new government office building in Gungahlin, a new school in Coombs and a range of infrastructure investments to support the Territory’s land release program.
Health infrastructure is a priority for the Government, with funding for the new sub-acute public hospital at the University of Canberra, a secure mental health unit, extra hospital beds and a new car park for Calvary Hospital.
The Budget invests in the opportunities the digital age offers to drive growth in our economy.
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