Council Rates, Spending Must Be Reined In

Official figures show that local government rates and spending are out of control and must be reined in, said Don Nicolson, vice president of Federated Farmers.

Mr Nicolson was commenting on the latest Statistics New Zealand data on local authority revenue and expenditure, released today.

“Rates revenue increased by 10.2 percent in the year ended June 2007 compared to the previous June year. This follows an 8.3 percent increase in 2006 compared to 2005.

“Since 2002 annual rates revenue has increased by more than a billion dollars to reach $3.3 billion,” Mr Nicolson said.

“The government has received a comprehensive report of an independent inquiry into rates, which made 96 recommendations to improve the funding of local government.

“The onus is now on the government to take urgent and decisive action to implement meaningful reform of local government funding and rating systems.

“Federated Farmers supports many of the inquiry’s recommendations including spreading the rates burden more fairly through better use of tools such as user charging and targeted rates.

“We also strongly agree that the government should be paying rates on its land, that councils should provide itemised rates assessments, and that there should be more effective benchmarking of council performance.

“Federated Farmers is keen to be part of the solution and we are willing and able to be part of any ongoing work programme to fix the situation.

“Meanwhile, at a local level farmers want councils that will focus on the basics and implement fair rating systems and with the local elections coming up we encourage candidates to sign the Federated Farmers’ pledge card.

“Farmers also support councils which are taking a best practice approach to their work. Good examples of local government were included in the Federation’s Top Council awards released last week,” Mr Nicolson said.

For more information on the pledge card and Top Council awards, go to www.fedfarm.org.nz