Kilkenny will feel the repercussions of the recession even more as budgets for every area of the local authority are cut in line with the decrease in capital and local funding.
County manager Joe Crockett told the members this week that income is falling in all departments and that income linked to development in Kilkenny has also drastically plummeted.
“ If we don’t make changes to our spending we will be faced with a deficit of €2 million at the end of the year,” he said.
Mr Crockett also pointed out that because of the new economy, the council was also going to suffer from the non-payment of rates by businesses in trouble.
“Although we did not raise our rates this year we still need to make provision for companies that will not be able to pay their rates in order to not steer our ship onto the rocks.”
The repercussions of the drop in development levies will have the biggest impact on the local authority . In 2007 development charges which were charged to those building houses for services were at an all time high of €11.4 million.
