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On his Facebook page Russell Brown writes: I’m not necessarily opposed to local body amalgamation: I think Auckland would be in a worse place without it, not least in that it makes us a bigger dog when we deal with central government. But this performative deadline-setting is entirely about the general election – they’ll campaign . . . → Read More: Government gives councils amalgamation ultimatum 
Mayor Victor Luca campaigned at the 2022 election that he would lobby central Government for better funding of council infrastructure and then explains he left it up to Local Government New Zealand to do the lobbying. Brendan Horan, who campaigned and won a list seat for New Zealand First on their policies proclaims “anyone promising rates reform as an election tactic was selling a fantasy”. I find myself in the bizarre position of being slammed by people for promoting the very policies they support. . . . → Read More: Letter: Defending one’s self from attack 
Ratepayers and local district councils suffer from an inefficient rates and infrastructure financing system. A paradigm shift in our thinking is required to prevent fixed income homeowners being forced out of their homes and stretching household budgets beyond limits for most of the rest. Several candidates vying for Whakatāne District Council suggest we should not be campaigning for recovery of GST on property rates since politicians have tried before and failed. Others suggest capping rates without alternative funding options, a user-pay approach that has bankrupted councils in the UK and Australia. I would like to share an example of a successful property rate valuation and financing system in California. . . . → Read More: Opinion: Ratepayers need a more efficient property rate and valuation system 
Source Diane McCarthy PDF REAL Rates Reform is upon us and the way to get is to make it an election issue in 2026 You can stand on the sideline and rubbish the idea, or you can roll up your sleeves and support the campaign to bring real relief to unaffordable rates. Who’s side are . . . → Read More: Article: Candidate promises to focus on rates reform
This campaign of lies and misinformation has found it’s way into the election campaign meetings now and the problem is that candidates have a limited time to address audiences with their policies and vision for a better Whakatāne, without having to correct politically motivated BS. . . . → Read More: Letter: Frustrating campaign of misinformation
Source Dave Stewart PDF I feel I must respond to Keith Melville’s latest letter “GST refund not the answer” (Beacon, September 24). Mr Melville has been vocal in claiming he wants the council to offer ratepayers a better deal but supports only candidates who offer very little in the way of substance. Nationally, the local . . . → Read More: Opinion: Real reform required, not tinkering Source 1News PDF While the National led coalition government is busy telling local councils how to spend money, they’re spending $70 million doing exactly what they’re telling councils not to. The Government has announced a $70 million investment package aimed at supercharging New Zealand’s events and tourism sectors, introducing new money to attract global . . . → Read More: Article: Govt unveils $70m fund to lure global acts, support major events  Comments are closed  Dave For Council 25, From The Press, TV  council reform, LGNZ, Wellbeing, whakatane v wellington Source Charlie Mitchell PDF ANALYSIS: The price of clean water will not be shared evenly. As councils plan to pump $50 billion into water infrastructure over the coming decade, some households face paying thousands of dollars more per year, while others escape with only modest rises. The figures, revealed in council plans submitted to . . . → Read More: Article: The great water divide: Winners, losers, and the price households will pay Comments are closed Dave For Council 25, Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, Three Waters 3 waters, rates increases, unaffordability A central criticism he made of New Zealand was the erosion of Parliamentary processes by successive governments – particularly the use of urgency for passing legislation, by which normal processes scrutinising bills are skipped. “If you want to process a great deal of legislation, the Parliament’s not sitting enough to deal with it,” said Palmer, noting that drafting legislation effectively was time-consuming and difficult. . . . → Read More: Article: Former PM Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s stark warning about NZ’s democracy
Rates are going through the roof and people are struggling. Even so, I’m going to say something that most mayoral candidates won’t admit. Rates are going to keep going up and anyone who promises that they can stop that happening is lying to you. The Government would sack the council and install commissioners if we did what it would take to stop rates increasing. . . . → Read More: Opinion: What the heck is happening with rates?
Since the election of the National-led coalition government, 33,000 more people were unemployed, we’re in the deepest recession in 30 years (aside from Covid), record numbers of people are needing government support to get by, free prescriptions have been cut, half-priced public transport has been cut, food bank funding has been cut and all this despite borrowing $15 billion dollars to fund tax cuts that we were told would fix the cost of living crisis. While the Government shovelled billions to big tobacco and mining companies, 2700 businesses went bankrupt in the last year, and to top it off I read that Nicola Willis burned $671 million from the Bank of Taxpayers on no new ferries. . . . → Read More: Letter: Who’s to blame for dormant town centre? Barry told The Post he was concerned that some candidates in the coming local government election were suggesting that shifting water services from council balance sheets opened up new spending or debt to invest. “It’s a dangerous position because there will potentially be the desire to load up with additional spending, additional debt ‒ councils may want to do that because their financial or balance sheet may look a lot better. “But of course, it will be the ratepayers who get hit with that, because they will still have to be paying water bills.” He said with rates rises already unaffordable in many places, there should instead be a corresponding drop in rates, in line with that of water bills. For example, he said if the new Wellington water provider had already been created, the rates rise at Hutt City Council would have dropped from 12.6% to 7.6% — a 5 percentage point decrease. Any decrease in rates less than 5 percentage points would therefore actually be an increase to the ratepayer. . . . → Read More: Article: Hutt mayor Campbell Barry warns against council spend-ups after water reforms Comments are closed From The Press, News Clippings, Three Waters 3 waters, affordability, council reform, rates increases, unaffordability 
Source Whakatāne district councillors have expressed surprise that cemeteries, public toilets, animal control, liquor licences and consents are not considered core services for councils by the Government. “This is bizarre,” councillor Nandor Tanczos said. “The (Coalition Government’s) list of core services doesn’t include a whole bunch of functions that the Government itself requires that . . . → Read More: Article: List of core services ‘bizarre’ – Tanczos Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings council reform, Wellbeing, Whakatāne Election 2025, whakatane v wellington I have to assume when he says “rights”, he’s talking about the parties on the right, because the voter suppression efforts he is in support of have had a tendency to favour the “right”. . . . → Read More: Letter: favoring The ‘Right’ Asked again if water costs would be cheaper, he said, “I’m out of time”, and walked into the debating chamber. . . . → Read More: Article: Government no longer saying its water reforms will be cheaper than Labour’s Comments are closed Dave For Council 25, Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, Three Waters council reform, LGNZ, rates, rates increases, unaffordability Source Thomas Manch PDF The Government has passed the final pieces of legislation required for its Local Water Done Well water reforms into law. Both the Local Government (Water Services) Bill, and a separate repeals and amendments bill for this legislation, were passed on Tuesday afternoon, cementing into law a water reform programme years . . . → Read More: Article: Government passes its water reforms into law Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, Three Waters 3 waters, LWDW, unaffordability Many councils will be delivering water services “in-house”, also limiting their debt-borrowing capacity. Already the Department of Internal Affairs has sent letters to six councils asking they reconsider going it alone, and join with their neighbours. But with the September 3 deadline approaching, the Government may instead be reaching for the stick. Local Government Minister Simon Watts can appoint Crown facilitators or specialists to push councils towards forging regional entities. This may mean the Government finds itself, to some degree, in the position Labour was — effectively compelling councils to work with their neighbours. And it would be doing so after letting councils determine their own fate and, in a case like Stratford District Council in Taranaki, acting on the views of their constituents. Essentially, the Government would be riding roughshod over local opinion. . . . → Read More: Article: The Government’s water reforms may not be going to plan Wellington City Council did support several parts of the bill, such as measuring council performance, strengthening transparency and accountability and providing regulatory relief. Core services have been defined in the bill as network infrastructure, public transport services, waste management, civil defence emergency management, libraries, museums, reserves, and other recreational facilities. While museums were listed as a core service, festivals, live performances, stadiums, concert halls and large theatres were not. The submission points to the economic benefit of events such as the council-supported World of WearableArt show, which contributed more than $31 million to the city last year. . . . → Read More: Article: Wellington City Council pushes back on Government’s ‘back to basics’ bill Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings affordability, council reform, disagreements, LGNZ, rates, whakatane v wellington Mayors and chairs commented to the survey “that a share of the GST revenue generated in their districts should be returned to local government”, saying GST was the “clear favourite” revenue stream of people surveyed. Southland Mayor Gary Tong told the survey Treasury should “actively look at” the amount of road user charges and GST paid by people in his region, which was then spent in other parts of the country. Waipā District Council Mayor Jim Mylchreest said councils should get a “share of GST”, particularly the GST paid on council rates as well as a share of GST paid on the development of new sections. “LAs [local authorities] and developers provide all of the services and take all of the risks and Central Government pockets the GST on every new section created,” Mylchreest said. Act and National have recently floated similar ideas. National wants to at least explore the idea of councils getting the GST collected on rates, while Act has launched a policy to share half of the GST revenue earned from building a new house with whichever local council issued that house’s consent. . . . → Read More: Is Returning GST To Councils ‘Ultra Left Wing Spin’? Source Dave Stewart PDF Dave Stewart In response to Lenore Craig’s letter (Denying democratic rights, Beacon July 30),there is one glaring issue with this that seems to have been left out of this discussion. David Seymour proudly announcing his voter suppression measures has to be one of the most interesting exchanges of the current government’s . . . → Read More: Letter: National Party deeply divided |
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