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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 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 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 I was invited by the Whakatāne District Council to record a video and submit a profile statement for the Local Body Election. I was pretty careful how I wrote the Profile Statement but I chose to do the video 'off the cuff' and not prepare for it and just answer the questions direct from my . . . → Read More: Whakatāne District Council Profile Statement & Video: Make Whakatāne A Happy Place Comments are closed Election 25, Video council reform, rates increases, Whakatāne Election 2025, whakatane v wellington 
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? 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 National’s hidden agenda was unaffordable rates. And now we are having to address it. National’s supporters in this campaign here in Whakatāne are telling us to pay for National’s $440 million water alternatives we must sell our publicly owned assets and privatise everything that moves. This means we will pay the same of higher rates, and then pay again for the services our rates used to cover. . . . → Read More: Don’t Vote For Wellington – Vote For Whakatāne Comments are closed Election 25, Three Waters affordability, council reform, rates increases, unaffordability, 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 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 |
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