In urban communities, the deliberative councils may decide, by a majority of two-thirds of the communes representing half of the population or half of the communes representing two-thirds of the population, to totally or partially maintain the rate differences existing in 1979 between the grouped communes for the council tax on secondary residences and other furnished premises not assigned to the principal dwelling levied by the public establishment for inter-communal cooperation. Failing such a decision, the differences existing between the rates of each member commune and the average rate are reduced by one fifth each year from 1980.
The deliberative councils may also decide to institute, by unanimous decision of the municipal councils, a procedure for the gradual smoothing of rates over a maximum period of twelve years, making it possible in the long term to eliminate the differences in the rates of council tax on second homes and other furnished premises not allocated to the principal dwelling between all the member communes.