15 August 2013

Central Government responsibility for rating issues

Instead of taking a hammer to local government through its sweeping changes to the Local Government Act, National should fix the basics by improving capacity and ensuring councils implement existing legislation properly, the Green Party said today.

The Christchurch City Council is at risk of legal action from ratepayers because they have failed to pass valid resolutions setting rates.

“This is not just a Christchurch City Council problem, central government needs to take responsibility for unclear law and lack of guidance,” said Green Party local government spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

“The Department of Internal Affairs should be tasked with developing a clear template for how councils should word their rates resolutions if the Local Government Rating Act is too convoluted.

“Parliament is already dealing with retrospective legislation for other councils on the issue of validating incorrectly drafted rating resolutions.

“The law should be clear so that local authorities are not risking legal action against their collecting of rates.

“Instead of fixing these genuine problems with local government law, the National Government is attacking the very purpose of local government.

“An even more serious problem than the invalid rates resolutions is the $80 million that Cantabrians are paying each year to ECan with no elected councillors to determine how those rates are set or spent.”

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