Thursday, 9 August 2012

Rates opponent’s own rates go up 32.47%

As the rates demands continue to hit the letterboxes, one lead opponent, Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer, says his own rates are up 32.47%, albeit to be paid in three annual instalments.

“I own a very modest and pretty small bungalow in Ellerslie, and my rates are up 32.47%. This shows that the rates increases are not only hitting highly valued properties. Many modest homes like mine are also seeing significant rates increases.”

Mr Brewer said he is just one of the 62.5%, or 18,310 homes, in the Orakei ward that will pay the full 10% increase in 2012/13. Regionwide, 133,549 households will have to pay the full 10% cap for 2012/13.

Mr Brewer says the Council’s finance department has this week revealed that for those 133,549 households, the true average increase (the total rates increase to be paid over time) is a whopping 20.3% that will need to be paid within the next two or three years. In Orakei rates increases for everyone average 7.67% when the cap is applied, but the true average increase is 18.8%.

A total of 256,427 Auckland households face rates increases with the average increase for them sitting at 8.1% when the cap is applied, but the true increase for all of those Aucklanders getting any increase actually averages 13.7%.

“Opening their mail, people are genuinely quite shocked to read the difference they’re being asked to pay over the next two or three years.

“The Mayor promotes an average rates increase of 3.6% and says no one will be paying more than 10%. However for over a quarter of million households their latest rates bills tell a very different story. The cap might lesson the instant pain but for many it will only prolong the agony. Let’s not forget that while the cap may limit the increases this year, people still have to pay the rest after that.

“With 133,549 households getting the news that their rates are up on average by 20.3% it affects about 400,000 Aucklanders living in those properties over the next two or three years. It’s miles off the much promoted 3.6% increase and long way away from the country’s one percent inflation rate for the year to 30 June 2012,” says Mr Brewer.

Ends

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