Auckland rates
Bernard Orsman at the Herald reports:
The Auckland Council is divided on a proposal by Mayor Len Brown to set a maximum rates increase of 4.9 per cent next year.
Mr Brown narrowly won backing for his plan yesterday after a rebellion by eight councillors who voted for a maximum increase of 3.9 per cent proposed by the right-wing Citizens & Ratepayers group.
In his first major test as mayor, Mr Brown pleaded with councillors not “to be divided on this issue”, but could only muster 10 votes, including his own vote, to pass the plan.
Can’t get much of a closer divide than 10-8. Who were the three Crs who did not vote on such an important issues?
The 4.9 per cent target is a stretch of Mr Brown’s election promise to keep rates low and near the rate of inflation. It is nearly 50 per cent above the forecast rate of inflation of 3.4 per cent.
Stretch is the polite term for it.
Mr Brown, whose job as mayor is to deliver the budget, argued at yesterday’s strategy and finance committee that the maximum rate of 4.9 per cent was a responsible target and would work for a final figure of mid- to high-3 per cent. The final figure would “go down from here, not up”, he said.
That would be better, but will they manage even that?
The high-level committee meeting went off the rails when three former Auckland City councillors, Cathy Casey, Richard Northey and Leila Boyle, who is now chairwoman of the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board, tried to relitigate a number of old issues, including the relocation of Monte Cecilia School and an elephant herd at Auckland Zoo, to the fury of other councillors.
Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said the meeting needed to be really clear about what it was doing, while Ann Hartley was fuming at the parochial behaviour of her left-wing colleagues.
Obviously they felt the rates increase should be even more than 4.9%!
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December 15th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Len Brown, the man with elastic election promisies. And purse by the look of some goings on.
I’m sure Phil Goof will be all over it as soon has hes finished dancing on Pansy Wong for her $500.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Correct me if I’m wrong, but, as I understand it, there will be for many a nett rate reduction, as ratepayers will no longer be required to pay rates to the now defunct Auckland Regional Council. That is not made clear in the article.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Man, I wish I could demand pay rises like councils.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Or teachers wreck.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Well, someone has to pay for the restructuring costs for the Supercity. It is too simplistic to look at the quantum of the rate increases – it would be far better to focus on what ratepayers money is being spent on. Not spending money on an elephant herd or a school relocation would reduce the rates bill, for example.
The bigger challenge is going to be how to align rates , given that there were wide rating differences across the former local bodies.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Can’t we stop pissing away money on the RWC- the demands for more money keeps growing. We have only just recovered from having to top up Eden Park for another $20 mill.
Also given that auckland Transport is planning to spend $315 MIll on new roads alone in the next 8 months, it hard to believe the savings in the roads budget is not there.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:47 am
The headline rate rise in Auckland is not what they should be spending time on,
The huge elephant in the Room in Auckland is trying to even out the rates take between the old cities, ie currently those in the old Auckland City region pay on a similarly valued property much lower rates than those in the other cities, due to the huge amount of rates contributed by value of the CBD office core.
The big question is how are they going to try and raise the rates of the old ACC region and lower the others so that rates on Auckland are evenly apportioned, – But I suspect that the council will run screaming in the other direction if it is ever proposed to be implemented in the near term.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:55 am
With a couple of exceptions, Auckland City Councillors are a group of retired MPs who never achieved much in parliament and ex-mayors. The average age must be around 60. Can anyone explain why the people of Auckland felt they needed to vote for a group of has-beens to represent them?
December 15th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Some of you are also forgetting that it was Rodney Hide who asserted from day one that the Auckland Supercity Council would save the region millions of dollars – meaning cheaper rates for all, and more investment in central infrastructure.
I think it’s clear that he was wrong, and that Brown was merely following the logic of our so-called ‘Minister of local-government’.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:12 am
GJKiwi. You may be right but I would doubt it. The weasels who make a living extracting maximum amounts from the tax-paid income of their residents will have used the highest base-line they could get their hands on. As such every levy, rabbit control charge, dog registration fee and ARC rate dollar will have been added in so as to minimise the apparent rise.
I still cannot understand why rates must increase at all! It is not as if they have been prudent over the last 5 years.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:40 am
But the people foiled Rodney’s dastardly undemocratic plan by democratically voting for the left
Huh? Why does that not make much sense
December 15th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Fale Andrew Lesa:
“Some of you are also forgetting that it was Rodney Hide who asserted from day one that the Auckland Supercity Council would save the region millions of dollars – meaning cheaper rates for all, and more investment in central infrastructure.”
This is a total falsehood. There is no such statement from Rodney Hide anywhere.
What is actually happening is that Len Brown is a big spender who also promised low rates. None of his projects are even in the mix yet.
One finds oneself on the picket fence when one promises both big spending and low rates.
Most of the leftwing Councillors do not like to be bound by a Len Brown’s promise as a Mayor candidate to keep rates low – they simply do not believe in this.
The new Auckland Council has also inherited all the revenue and spending plans of the previous Councils (most of whom advanced costly projects in their plans but went light on the immediate rate increases necessary to pay for this in the run up to the new Auckland Council).
December 15th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Give it to ‘em Lenny. Give those Auckland idiots just what they voted for. Actually, you can put the rates up 20% in Sth Auckland. That’s where most of your idiot votes came from.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:54 am
The three concillors who didn’t vote should resign. If you have no opinion on the issue of rates rises, or for any reason couldn’t make it to the meeting, then you are simply not up to the job.
December 15th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Fale Andrew Lesa: Some of you are also forgetting that it was Rodney Hide who asserted from day one that the Auckland Supercity Council would save the region millions of dollars – meaning cheaper rates for all, and more investment in central infrastructure.
Chris Diack: This is a total falsehood. There is no such statement from Rodney Hide anywhere.
December 15th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Pete George:
Yes. Some of those efficency gains are a consequence of the transition. But efficency gains (and consquently lower rates) were not the rationale for it.
And the key point is this: where in the statement is Rodney Hide promising lower rates which according to Fale Andrew Lesa was the rationale for the change.
He asserted that Rodney Hide set out to lower rates. Its a very odd assertion as even Hide/ATA said there would be just under 4% rate INCREASES.
The reason you will not find the alledged statement on rates is because rating is largely dependent on political decisions by voters and politicians. And surprise surprise what are we seeing now?
December 15th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Len’s promised about three new railway lines so he has to pay for the first spike somehow.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
@Chris Diack, it’s much easier to just not feed the trolls. They have decided that Rodney Hide is the devil and Roger Douglas eats babies for breakfast, and no amount of fact is going to change their position. Even Rodney’s quote from Petie At Noon is accurate (pretty big fail there Petie, even for you). The structure will ensure better value from rates. The unsaid bit is … provided the sheeple of jafaland don’t elect a big-spending, lying, fraudster and conman to the mayoralty. Oops.
Anyone who thinks there aren’t savings to be made is either wilfully and deliberately ignorant, or a fool. Of course there are savings to be made. Hell, the savings on the North Shore mayor’s credit card alone must amount to millions. Although of course bars & restaurants right along Hurstmere Road are closing their doors as we speak. Again, the unsaid piece is … provided the sheeple of jafaland don’t elect a big-spending, lying, fraudster and conman to the mayoralty. Oops.
Note to the centre (there *is* no right in NZ politics. Especially not in jafaland): NEXT TIME PUT UP SOMEONE ELECTABLE!!!!! The sheeple of jafaland have only themselves to thank. It isn’t like Lenny was hiding behind a veneer of respectability now, is it? We knew there were dark deeds lurking in the credit card statement. We knew he’d be giving all his mates the plum jobs (it isn’t like cronyism isn’t the left’s spiritual home, is it?) Jafaland has the mayor and council it deserves.
December 15th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Remember the 4.9% is only an average the reality will be 10% for those rich pricks who didnt vote for Lenny(put it all on the credit card) and 2% for those who did vote for Lenny.
Rich pricks can look forward to being rpaed pillaged and burned by Lenny and his supporters over the next 3 years at least.
Dont say you werent warned
December 15th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Why don’t you poor buggers in Auckland just pay your rates to the rate of inflation, 2009 year of course. If enough of you say enough is enough, well you just watch these lefty parasites squeal like stuck pigs. Stick it to the bastards, if you sit meekly in the corner then you will always be fair game for any socialist suckholes trying to build that socialist utopia. These pricks broke their contract, not you, make the scum pay. I’m sure they will come after you but if thousands say no the bastards are screwed.
December 15th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Perhaps I’m a bit too suspicious but isn’t it a happy coincidence that this makes it, in Liarbore’s eyes, quite a bit more difficult for Rodney to win Epsom, for all Liarbore have to do is to point to the “massive rate rise begat by the SuperCity Amalgamation” and forget to mention the reason it happened is cause all the Liarbore Councillors voted for it. That seems to be the lefty plan, to my suspicious eyes.
It won’t work of course in Epsom because they’re one of the (sadly only about half-dozen) Auckland electorates who actually really do understand what the fuck is going on, but it will of course reduce the overall Auckland ACT party vote quite considerably and isn’t that just terribly convenient, for Liarbore.
December 15th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
And of course the fact 1.5 million people have to pay too much in rates, in the middle of the most serious economic crisis any of us have ever seen, is quite beside the point.
December 15th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
And given Auckland property prices, a difference of 1% translates into thousands for the majority of properties.
Thanks Liarbore. I thought Auckland was the engine room of the economy? Or doesn’t it matter now Hulun doesn’t live there anymore?
So what’s YOUR plan for improving the economy? Or don’t you have one.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
For once I envy Auckland – Last time I heard, Tauranga’s district plan was going to have a 17% rate increase this year… but our ever wise mayor told us not to get so worried as its only 14% after inflation. But I can sleep well knowing that we have a free art gallery that costs a couple million to run that no-one goes to, or we’re beautifying our water front by replacing a car park behind rail tracks with a bit of lawn for another few million, or spending approximately 5million on a commercial venture to make a minieral spa.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
God the media are so compliant. The 4.9% increase is a Council wide average, some will be facing a 10%+ increase depending upon the predecessor Council. And no mention of the commercial rating differential increase. That will no doubt be sneaked out over the holiday period.
December 16th, 2010 at 7:12 am
Some perspective would be good. A full 2% of the rates increase is down to RWC, already budgetted in by the previous ACC and ARC. Another .5% are down to transition costs of the change to a Supercity. The original spending plans of the predecessor Councils would have seen an increase of about 9%, so the plan to hold it to under 5% in fact shows considerable restraint.
The call of the centre-left Councillors Casey, Northey, and Boyle to look at Monte Cecilia School were in fact a call to not spend money on the project. The previous C&R Council have signed up to a secret deal with the Catholic Diocese to demolish and re-build the school to add a small area to an already large park. It will cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars, and it is the right who to date have driven it through.