Household rates are to rise in Belfast by just under three and a half per cent. The average home will pay just twenty four pounds more next year.
Sounds entirely reasonable until you unpack this announcement.
Your rates bill is made up of two parts: the district rate set by councils and the regional rate approved by Stormont.
Ministers have frozen their share of the bill which means the only increase is coming from the decision of councillors.
They're putting up their portion of the bill by nearly eight per cent. It's a whopping increase, well above inflation.
It's only thanks to the decision by MLAs not to impose any rise that we are facing the reasonably modest increase we see on the table.
The councillors pat themselves on the back for keeping the increase down to modest levels.
They say efficiencies have meant the costs of running their departments have risen by less than one per cent.
So what explains the hike?
The council says it is having to build up its reserves after four million pounds had to be repaid to the Dept of Finance.
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