June 6, 2024 12:00pm by David Farrar

Rare sanity from WCC, but also massive rates increase

Today’s council announcement says there’ll be a rates increase of 17 per cent – in March the increase was to have been 16.4 per cent. The announcement fails to mention the extra sludge levy that has already been announced and which will mean ratepayers are paying over 18 per cent more.

So we are having an 18% rates increase in the only city in NZ which has a shrinking population. I wonder why? The 18% increase is because of choices the Council has made – renovating the Town Hall, a new large central Library instead of the perfectly good three inner city ones we have, a loss making convention centre, massively expensive cycleways etc etc.

A rare occasion where the Mayor and Deputy voted on the side of ratepayers. There is no sensible case for owning a minority share of the airport. You have no control of it, you get poor returns on the shares, and it creates a conflict with your regulatory role.

What I find somewhat ironic is that the vote would have been tied if it were not for the two Iwi representatives voting in favour of selling.