Rates skyrocket 35 percent over five years

Friday 17 Dec 2004

Ken Shirley - Press Releases - Local Government

Local Council rates data released today reveal New Zealanders are being hit just as hard by local government as central government under Labour, ACT Local Government spokesman Ken Shirley said today.

Mr Shirley was commenting on the local authority statistics showing rates collected in the September quarter of 2004 had climbed to $764 million, up 7.2 percent from the September 2003 quarter, and up a staggering 35.2 percent from the September 1999 quarter.

"How can local government justify a rate increase that is three times the rate of inflation?

"The Government can accept much of the blame for this. Under Labour, there has been a huge increase in the number of delegated functions and responsibilities, especially the mandatory requirement to engage in endless rounds of meaningless consultation.

"Today's five-year overall statistic comes hot on the heels of a recent consumer price index finding that household rates had jumped 10.4 percent in just one year.

"ACT is keen to encourage local authorities to tighten their belts and discipline their spending. ACT is the low tax party. Rates are a tax and we want them to go down not constantly spiral upwards," Mr Shirley said.

ENDS

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