Responding to reports that Gore District Council is proposing to hike rates by 21.4%, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Sam
Warren, said:
“Clearly something is very broken for councils across New Zealand.
“A culture of historic wasteful spending throughout local government, combined with soaring costs, has resulted in an
proposed average increase of 15 percent across the county. Sadly, Gore residents are well above this average.
“The chickens are coming home to roost, and as always, it is ratepayers having to foot the bill. The council must now
take a ruthless approach to cutting spending, eliminating any expenditure that is not on core services in order to
protect ratepayers from an unaffordable rates hike in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”