27 February 2007

Greater Wellington Regional Council Rates Cover Up

A news release from the Greater Wellington Regional Council dated 22 February 2007 quotes Chairman Ian Buchanan as saying “that a regional rate increase of 6.5% was required to fund Greater Wellington’s activities for the next financial year”. The true figure is a 12.9% increase.

“Now that the Regional Council has decided to take over the economic development function under the guise of the Wellington Regional Strategy, it is trying to hide the true cost from its ratepayers”, said Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy. “This is truly extraordinary. The proposed rates increase is 12.9%, not the 6.5% that is claimed. The news release is, at best, misleading and at worst, downright deception.”

It is expected that some of the regional rate increase will be offset by the other Councils removing funding for Positively Wellington Business from their budgets, but even if this occurs, there will still be substantial rate increases from the Wellington Regional Council for all but Wellington City ratepayers. The following schedule sets out the net increase in Wellington Regional Council rates for each of the cities and districts.

Kapiti ratepayers 11.5%
Upper Hutt ratepayers 11.3%
Hutt City ratepayers 9.3%
Porirua City ratepayers 8.4%
Wellington City ratepayers 5.8%

ENDS