Community – Connection – Cooperation – Climate
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“Having created a situation where councils are being forced to put up the rates to pay for things like water infrastructure, the government’s now trying to blame them for doing something that they really don’t have a choice but to do.
“Ultimately if the government don’t want councils to increase rates, they’ve got to find another way of funding the water infrastructure that we need.”
Local Government New Zealand president and Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton said rates capping could be “disastrous for communities” and leave councils without the means to fund essential infrastructure.
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The other major issue is the whole funding structure for local government. Which is why I think the Government is taking a very narrow approach here. How on earth the Government thinks it could put a cap on annual rates increases without looking at the wider issue, I don’t know. And that wider issue is the fact that local councils are being asked to do more and more under their own steam, without any extra funding to make it happen. Example: the Government wants more tourists coming here, but what about the infrastructure needed to support that growth? The Government doesn’t pay for that. Local councils do.
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Talking my language and amplifying the message that Central Government needs to fully fund it’s undemocratic demands on ratepayers.
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