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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 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 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 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 In a statement yesterday, Local Government Minister Simon Watts said some households were getting frustrated by unfair rate hikes during the cost-of-living crisis. It followed comments at the recent Local Government NZ (LGNZ) conference, where Watts compared councils to children and suggested that letting them do what they wanted might lead to bad choices. Olds, who attended the conference, told his colleagues and LGNZ representatives that he was disappointed that councils continued to get “beaten up by central government” over things that were out of their control. Councils had defended rising rates as they were dealing with increased infrastructure costs, unfunded mandates, insurance, and inflation. LGNZ chief executive Susan Freeman-Greene said tensions between local and central government were “a challenge”, and that councils bore the impact of frequent changes to government policy. . . . → Read More: Article: Councillors tired of being ‘beaten up’ and blamed by central government Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, RNZ council reform, LGNZ, rates increases, whakatane v wellington “There are some steps available to central government such as the appointment of an observer or the replacement of a council with commissioners … but that tends to be used as a last resort and only after ministerial intervention.” The agency he suggested would be set up like the Public Service Commission, “with the ability to provide early, proactive support for local government and effective advice to ministers when issues arise” . . . → Read More: Article: Calls for ‘department for local government’ to oversee councils The cost of water services would be going up a lot, Kircher said, but less so under a joint model. Now, keeping the services in-house, his council’s total rates take would have to increase by 25% next year, and a further 30% the year after. The council would be reviewing its long term plan to find savings and lessen this. . . . → Read More: Article: About 40 water entities emerging in Government water regime Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, Three Waters rates, rates increases, whakatane v wellington “We all want lower rates increases. I want lower rates increases, I know you want lower rates increases, I hear from my community they want lower rates increases. But it can’t be at the expense of our children picking up the tab because of our negligence today.” The Selwyn mayor tells Newsroom a key problem is councils have few alternatives to raise money. The best tool the Government could give councils, in his opinion, is to return GST spending on new houses locally. “That would be a game-changer for us,” he says, noting between 1000 and 3000 houses have been built each year in Selwyn over the past five or six years. . . . → Read More: Article: Govt winds up council reform storm OPINION: What do we do about 78 councils, rising rates and the need to improve efficiency and focus on the basics? Some argue the Government should simply pass a law to cap rates and let ‘the market’ sort itself out. But history tells us blunt interventions often generate unintended consequences. When councils have focused purely on rate minimisation in the past, they’ve generally cut infrastructure maintenance, inspections and deferred capital investment, contributing to a significant proportion of New Zealand’s $200 billion infrastructure deficit. Government wants to grow the economy and speed up housing development. Yet, ironically, it needs councils to enable housing growth, through investments in roads, water, transport and other essential services. Capping rates without addressing the funding model simply kneecaps councils’ ability to invest. Without money, projects don’t proceed and assets deteriorate. . . . → Read More: Article: The argument against council rate caps Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, News Clippings, Other council reform, rates, rates increases, whakatane v wellington Councils are getting around 10% of their budgets from Crown grants when in other countries it’s more like 15-20% or more. Or, as the S&P analyst says, “you’re told to do more infrastructure spending, and you’re getting less support”. This is the opposite of localism and resetting the relationship between central and local government that Christopher Luxon and National campaigned on two years ago. Instead, giving the housing minister the power to override democratically elected council decisions, even if it’s an interim measure ahead of new RMA laws, smacks of subverting the democratic process. And it’s those changes to the Resource Management Act that the coalition Government is itching to get completed because it presents a compelling reason to get rid of the country’s 11 regional councils. . . . → Read More: Article: Coalition finds a handy distraction in council bashing 
Source Tangi Utikere, MP for Palmerston North. 25 June at 13:01 via Facebook Today the Government tried to stop me talking about a local example 🚌 of the Government attempting to get councils to pick up the tab for services that have previously been Government funded 👇 but I will not be silenced when raising . . . → Read More: Government Telling Councils How To Spend Ratepayer’s Money Must Stop! “I care for our district and I want to see thriving communities for all peoples – and this means making difficult, thoughtful, future-focused decisions within a constrained council budget. These decisions are never black and white. Good decision-making relies on balancing competing priorities for the benefit of all.” “I have a solid understanding of local government through Community Board work, and through my time on the National Community Boards Executive Committee. We’ve been advocating for community boards to be harnessed and supported to be a more effective tool for better local decision-making.” . . . → Read More: Article: Council or bust for community board stalwart New Zealand’s rising rates are primarily due to increasing costs for local councils, including infrastructure upgrades, population growth, and inflation, leading to higher rates to fund essential services and meet community needs. . . . → Read More: The Real Reasons Behind New Zealand’s Rates Increases
In the leadup to National’s first budget I protested that the planned tax cuts were unaffordable and stood on a roundabout in my home town and let everyone know I was concerned. The support was just incredible. Soon I was joined by more and more people and we made a big noise predicting that everything that has happened was the only outcome from such disastrous policy. The Postpone The Tax Cuts Facebook Page remains a valuable historical resource recording how many people predicted the disaster that is this National led coalition government would be. . . . → Read More: Postpone The Tax Cuts Campaign – 2024 If you have spent about 5 minutes on the pages that are promoting the National led coalition government’s local council agenda you’ll have heard them swoon when the PM addressed the local council conference and told them his lot were going to amend the law and insist councils stopped doing things other than collecting . . . → Read More: Government calls on mayors to boost school attendance and wellbeing 
Source Australia is now in the thick of a federal election cycle, the United States just came out of one and in New Zealand, the fallout from the last national election has brought into focus a part of the political machine often out of view. To a voter’s naked eye, the impact . . . → Read More: How Atlas Network amassed a global network of free market think tanks and reached into Australia and New Zealand |
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