WCC looking to hike rates 24% over two years

Georgina Campbell reports:

Wellington City Council is looking at a 9.1 per cent rates increase this year.

It comes on the back of interest rate hikes, inflation hitting a 30-year high, and a 13.5 per cent rates increase last year. The latest rates hike was revealed at an Annual Plan workshop yesterday.

While Mayor Andy Foster was sympathetic to the squeeze on budgets, he told the Herald that last year Wellingtonians were “absolutely emphatic” they wanted the council to invest in the city.

Sympathy doesn’t allow households to pay the bills.

WCC has made decisions to spend over $100 million of a second music venue and tens of millions on a convention centre that will be a massive loss maker. They are treating ratepayers as an unlimited source of funds.