Barrow pushers and empire builders won’t be impressed by Rodney Hide’s mission to ensure local authroities stick to their core activities.
But ratepayers increasingly concerned by rate rises which far exceed inflation will breathe a sigh of relief.
The Waitaki District recently announced a relatively modest overall increase of 3.6% for rates this year but that’s the lowest it’s been for ages and one of the lowest in the country.
Steep rises haven’t been altogether the fault of councils, they’ve had to take on responsibilities which were Central Government’s but only rarely given sufficient, if any, assistance for funding them.
But the power of general competence which the previous government gave local authorities has also led some councils into activities which have been costly and anything but competent.
Hide’s intention for councils to stick to their knitting is welcome, even if there is not yet an agreement over which pattern they should follow.
Homepaddock 
The PM’s apparent bumbling around on the continuing Worth saga may well be like George W – misunderestimated again. We now have Maurice Williamson as M of Internal Affairs, and a fresh face to get Rodney’s agenda through. But farmers should watch MW. Last time in office he was keen to privatize the roads. Rural mayors went ballistic! Few farmers actually pay the full costs of their local roads through rates, and ‘user-pays’ would cost them big time.
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Rodney Hide’s approach is one that will resonate with ACT supporters and also extreme parts of the Rural community.
Already John Key has clipped his wings by stating his own support of many of the social development programmes of councils.
As for Hide’s ridiculous idea of referenda on matters that would impact on financial council matters, that is a no go as far as I can see.
Referenda presuppose that councils can’t make decisions. Councils are elected by ratepayers as their representatives, they make political decisions.
Referenda are potentially dangerous for the lack of information provided in turn a very confused and ill informed voting pattern.
Don’t worry folks, Rodney Hide won’t get carte blanche control over the local government sector. Thank heavens for that !
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“What I’ve asked for is work to be undertaken on making the financial position of local councils much more TRANSPARENT to ratepayers … so that ratepayers can have a sense of what projects are going to be costing them.” Rodney Hide.
Rodney is so right. TRANSPARENCY is definitely lacking in Councils.
Yes Neil, “referenda are potentially dangerous,” but only for the councillors and their unchecked Chief Executives. One of the main principles of a local authority is that it should “conduct its business in an open, transparent and democratically accountable manner.”
The OPEN and TRANSPARENT principle is being completely ignored. So many meetings are held behind closed doors away from the eyes of the public, where no minutes are kept of the proceedings. At the public Council meetings, no debate takes place, just dubious rubber-stamping!
Unfortunately “political decisions” are made with the objective of remaining in power.
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Sally – For $2m over 12k people, Gore District must have one of the lowest roads budgets in the country – per head, per km, or whatever. Small area and flattish topography probably help, but are you sure of that figure?
For serious rural roading costs, take a look at some NI DCo’s like Waitomo or South Wairarapa. Re DCC – unless it seperates rural from urban roads and rates accordingly, it creams off the suburban streets with good rate takes and light traffic, and plugs cash into rural roads with lower rate takes and heavy axle loadings. Great idea, but best kept quiet about! Roading is usually the single biggest cost for rural councils, but they all have their own problems and policies, so comparisons difficult.
Maybe this post should move up into the Rodney Hide debate. Will be interesting to hear exactly what he has in mind, and how the various councils react.
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Tussock – The $2.038M is the amount of rates collected.
Expenditure $4.036 (includes depreciation)
Capital Expenditure – $2.858M
Funded by rates $2.038M, Depreciation $1,925M, Other $2.245M, Admin $.485M.
A small district
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