Reacting to Environment Canterbury’s proposal to hike rates by 24%, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Hiking rates by almost a quarter is simply inexcusable when there’s still so much waste in the council.

“Environment Canterbury has 722 staff, a third of which are paid more than $100,000 per year. The 32 communications and marketing staff is also overkill. The council should be clearing out the bloat before reaching into ratepayers’ pockets.

“Other areas of waste are not hard to identify either. Spending almost $3 million a year on a ride-share scheme that is ratepayer subsidised by $11 for every trip is simply ludicrous.

”The Council must go back to the drawing board and present a serious proposal that cuts waste, rather than shovelling even more costs onto struggling ratepayers.”

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