23 JULY 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ratepayers threatened with higher waste levies won’t find much comfort in the spin from proponents like WasteMinz, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “WasteMinz is desperately spinning to play down the levy hikes they and local councils are lobbying for. WasteMinz chief executive Paul Evans accused the Taxpayers’ Union of inaccuracy and scaremongering for repeating a Radio New Zealand report that councils were lobbying for a $140 levy.”

“The $140 figure was an example cited in WasteMinz’ own manifesto, but the actual remits put forward at Local Government New Zealand’s recent conference named no particular figure. In other words, if these bodies get their way, there is no telling how high the waste levy could be.”

“Sector groups like WasteMinz support hiking the levy because it means councils will have more funds to throw at the sector. However, there is no guarantee that this funding is used on core services, meaning councils will have more room to waste money on vanity projects when they should be cutting wasteful spending.”

ENDS

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