Council consultation reveals 80% of Aucklanders don’t support 3.5% rates increase

Consultation a ‘con-job’?

Auckland Council has spent huge sums on a ‘consultation’ programme seeking citizen’s views on its 10-year budget of income and expenditure.

As the nation’s biggest city Auckland is home to more than one third of New Zealand’s total population, including about 460,000 residential ratepayers who together pay more than half of the council’s operating cost though rates and water rates.

In its consultation programme the Council has been urging its ratepayers and residents to “Have your say” and many thousands have responded so far, and many more responses are expected before the deadline for responses on Monday next.

The major issue of the level of rates increases has produced an overwhelming rejection of the Council’s proposed overall 3.5% ‘average’ rates increase - which, for residential ratepayers is in fact 5.6% – and for more than one in four ratepayers, an increase of more than 10%.

More than 80% of respondents do not support this level of rates increase – nor is there support for even bigger rates increases to pay for increased transport expenditure.

With such a level of opposition to its plans for taxing its citizens the Council must reconsider and reprioritise its whole expenditure programme and bring it down to levels that the community will accept as reasonable.

If it does not – then the whole consultation process is exposed as attempted con-job on the citizens of Auckland.

This should be a lesson to all those other councils who are faced with the probability of a future as a Super City.

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