Gisborne DC urged to fight for rates reduction

"Gisborne is proud of being the first town to see the light, but Council must recognize whatever ugly facts it may reveal," said Heather Marion Smith in a recent address to a Gisborne District Council meeting.

"As i complete my term as the Democrats for Social Credit Party's Local Government spokesman" she said, “it falls on me to warn councillors that applying the mixed ownership model to local body assets is still on the agenda - as prescribed in the 2009 report to parliament from from the capital markets development task force in which chairman, rob cameron, included local as well as state-owned enterprises for partial privatisation.

"Although the local government act prohibits the privatisation of local body assets, we have seen how quickly legislation can be amended when the MOM bill was passed allowing SOE shares to be traded on the equity markets.

“As for local government debt, the Labour/Green duo has a shameful record of unanimously supporting Rodney Hide's 2011 bill to establish a bond bank, namely the Local Government Funding Agency designed to increase the scope of the financial arm of the capital markets. In spite of this new bank being nominally owned by local government it has succeeded in loading a greater burden of debt servicing onto ratepayers as total debt passes the $11 billion dollar mark. This is outrageous.”

Miss smith reminded councillors that Democrats for Social Credit will continue the fight for economic policies which would actually reduce rates, even invoking existing legislation such as the 2004 amendments to the Public Finance Act which allow borrowing from our sovereign Reserve Bank at no interest.

"That's the ethical and sustainable option which local bodies must demand," she concluded.

ENDS

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