It saddens me when Local Government (LG) is hammered publicly by Central Government (CG). Over the Local Government NZ (LGNZ) conference held in Christchurch last week (and, again let me object to Christchurch City Council resigning from LGNZ that was a dumb, no stupid, decision which should be … [Read more...]
Councillors are being led down a one-way path by CCC staff who want to sell assets
Recently in a behind closed doors meeting our elected Councillors were told that the estimated rates increase in the Long-Term Plan for next year will be 18%. They must resist this and push hard for a decent analysis of costs. In an article in the … [Read more...]
Phil Gets things done Column
Rates: Some years ago there was a City Councillor called Oscar Alpers. At one of the numerous meetings on setting the rates Oscar came up with an observation. He referred to councillors bulldozing costs into another year by putting off addressing costs and therefore being able o set low rates. It … [Read more...]
Phil Mauger’s “I am standing for mayor because I want to get stuff done” column:
Rate increases: Remember how Phil was promoting 4% rates increases during the election campaign? Last week we analysed how much costs CCC is facing that have gone up over which they have little control, and that it would be nigh on impossible to get to that figure. So, let us consider how … [Read more...]
What $100m of CCC expenditure decrease, and a zero-rates promise, would mean:
Last week I said that I would try to show what zero rates over the next three years would mean. Firstly, a lesson on what makes up rates. A City Council spends money with operating costs and capital expenditure. Operating costs include mowing lawns, running libraries, swimming pools etc. … [Read more...]