NoMoreRates
The campaign to reform local council rates.

media release 19 March 2012

Local Government changes good news for ratepayers.

[statement from David Thornton]

I welcome most of the proposals put forward by Minister Nick Smith.

Taken together these proposals will put a brake on excessive council spending, and limits to increasing rates.

Changes to the purposes of Local Government will provide a firm cage to prevent councils straying into areas they should keep out of – such as funding projects which promise economic benefits but also carry significant financial risk.

The introduction of fiscal responsibility requirements and prudent debt levels is long overdue and will provide some significant protection to ratepayers against huge rates increases.

Also welcome is the introduction of powers for elected councils to control staff levels and salary levels. This will make elected members more directly answerable to their local communities.

The greater empowerment of directly elected Mayors may not receive universal approval – especially from those who view the Auckland situation unfavourably. Mayors could be elected from within council – or if this proposal stays then Mayors should be subject to recall.

A graduated scale of intervention linked to fiscal responsibility is another win for ratepayers as it allows Government intervention at a lower level than Ministerial take-over – and could be a useful tool to take action as soon as a council starts to stray from the straight and narrow

Council re-organisation proposals seem to be a promotion for more amalgamations. While this may produce efficiency gains – care needs to be exercised in terms of effective local representation – especially where smaller communities are gobbled up by larger units.

An Efficiency Task Force is another proposal which should benefit the community generally if it leads to changes in consultation process which would require plain language information being given to residents to enable them to make appropriate submissions, and ultimately to influence councils decisions.

The proposal for the Productivity Commission to review the balance of functions between local and central government is a much needed move to make a clear demarcation of the responsibilities of the respective levels of government.

All in all, a pretty good day for long-suffering ratepayers.

ENDS

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