Rates or Taxes?

The Herald has a column on the issue of rates vs taxes for local bodies.

I actually support taxes, as in a local GST preferably, over rates for a number of reasons:
* Property values are a stupid way to fund local government services
* As the values of properties change so often, it is very hard to ascertain how much extra you are paying due to council spending decisions
* Unless a Council very publicly and explicitly increased a local tax rate, then Councils would have to live within their income, rather than the insane system at present where they spend what they want, and then strike a rate level to fund it.

Many Council services should in fact be funded through user charges for services such as water, sewerage, waste, roads etc. However for things like parks and libraries a local tax in return for abolishing rates would work for me.