Dunedin Ratepayers Urged To Withhold Rates If Stadium Funding Goes Ahead

The ratepayers of Dunedin City are now faced with a double-hit of rates increases to pay the majority share of the cost of building a new stadium to replace the Carisbrook rugby stadium.

As both the City Council and Otago Regional Council are both contributing ratepayers’ funds those living within the city boundaries get hit twice – total cost between $100 and $120 per annum for residential ratepayers.

Ratepayers sre fully justified in proposing to withhold part of their rates – this was done successfully in 2003/4 when one third of Auckland regional ratepayers withheld all or part of their rates in protest at unreasonable rate demands.

This went on for months, keeping the rates issue in the public eye, and eventually saw a change in control of the Auckland Regional Council at the 2004 elections – followed by three years of ARC rates increases below 5%.

A victory for ratepayers.

At a time when house prices are changing daily why should property-owners be forced to pay tax [rates] based on out of date estimates of their property’s likely selling price?

In the case of Dunedin the ratepayers, together with Otago region ratepayers, are being asked to pay about $130 million out of total estimated cost of $188 million - almost 70%.

These decisions by city and regional councils fly in the face of reputable surveys which show a majority of ratepayers do not support council funding for the stadium.

Promoters of the Stadium claim that this is not a rugby stadium but – because of the involvement of Otago University – it is in fact a ‘campus’.

That sort of reasoning will not go down well with Dunedin ratepayers.

If it is a ‘campus’ then either the University or the Ministry of Education – or both – should pay.

This Dunedin farce is yet another example of the unfairness of the current council rates system - with its draconian options for enforcement.

Despite that I urge Dunedin ratepayers to withhold part of their rates if the present funding plans remain.

ENDS

© Scoop Media