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Ring-fenced debt a $367.90 rates hike?

A targeted rate to pay the Hastings District Council’s $55.7-million public debt over five years, as implied by the Local Government Commission, could mean an extra $367.90 per year per ratepayer, Hastings Against Amalgamation spokesman Mike Butler said today.

A report "Decisions on debt and assets of Hawke’s Bay councils", released by Local Government Commission head Basil Morrison on Friday, proposed ring-fencing that would mean loans raised by the current councils would be repaid by their current ratepayers, through a targeted rate in those areas.

Ring-fenced financial arrangements from the start date of an amalgamated council, should it proceed on November 1, 2016, for five years to 2021, would mean the 30,272 ratepayers in Hastings each would pay this extra $367.90 per year on top of the other increases brought by amalgamation, Mr Butler said.

Claims by A Better Hawke’s Bay chair Rebecca Turner that the commission’s “holistic analysis” ended “the incorrect assumptions that amalgamation would see Napier lumped with Hastings debt” ignores the harsh reality for Hastings ratepayers who could be lumped with the entire debt with a short time frame to pay it, he said.

“What does the Hastings District Council think about lumping ratepayers with this extra burden and who is sticking up for Hastings ratepayers? Mr Butler said.

The Local Government Commission also appears to lack confidence in support for amalgamation when Mr Morrison on Friday announced that an opinion survey is to start but results won’t be released.

“If he was confident of widespread support he would release those results”, Mr Butler said. “Likewise, A Better Hawke’s Bay should release the results of its survey that is understood to show support for amalgamation is falling.”

ENDS

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