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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 Source The nomination period has ended. A big mihi/acknowledgement to all our candidates who have stepped up to stand for Whakatāne District council – it takes heart to put yourself forward for your community. See who is standing for Whakatāne District – below are the candidates in the running to lead where they live. Important . . . → Read More: Candidate List – Whakatāne District Council – 2025 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 Source The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has released its final list of candidates for the upcoming local body elections in October 2025. Governance Manager Steve Groom says he is pleased with the diversity and number of nominations received this year, noting that every regional council constituency will now hold an election. “We have . . . → Read More: Article: Bay of Plenty Regional Council Confirms Candidates for 2025 Local Elections “If you’re on the dormant roll, your record won’t show up on vote.nz, but you’ll be re-enrolled as soon as you fill in an enrolment form with your current address. “If you’ve got any concerns about your enrolment, please get in touch with our enrolment team on 0800 36 76 56 or enquiries@elections.govt.nz and they can check your enrolment.” . . . → Read More: Article: How to check your enrolment after concerns from voters 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 
Source Dave Stewart PDF I want to thank Peter Minten for his opinion piece (Where is your research?, Beacon. July 25) and acknowledging that the forces of conservatism are lining up our community owned assets for sale in order to pay for our 3 Waters infrastructure. Honesty like that needs to be applauded. At a . . . → Read More: Opinion: A mature conversation about unaffordable rates Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press council reform, rates, rates increases, tax cuts, 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 
Our world needs to know that friends can disagree and still be friends. We can have strong disagreements and still be friends. It’s because we are friends that we can disagree. This is my message to the Whakatane Community – let’s remember that, at heart, we are all human and count on each other. We need to heal our divisions. . . . → Read More: Navigating Difficult Questions 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 Win 4 hours of handyman labour in the Whakatāne / Ōhope area simply by buying a raffle ticket and at the same time support the campaign to get Dave Stewart elected to the Whakatāne District Council To enter either buy a ticket at the Dave Aid Concert on August 2nd or secure your tickets . . . → Read More: Fundraiser Raffle – Win 4 Hours Of Handyman Labour in Whakatāne / Ōhope If the truth is that the reason our council debt has ballooned is caused by their unidentified and unnamed core group of councillors, can WAG now explain how this villainous core group has managed to also balloon the debt on 14 councils above us on the Taxpayer’s Union list, and I guess those below us as well. . . . → Read More: Letter: Whakatāne Action Group’s ‘Core Group’ Conspiracy Theory Exposed? “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 “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. . . . → Read More: Article: Capping rates rises would make things ‘worse not better’ – Chris Hipkins Comments are closed Election 25, From The Press, Podcasts, RNZ LGNZ, 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! |
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