The Local Body Rates Heist thread

[Daytr]

NZTX, are you offering any solutions within your litany of posts?

Three Waters was largely rejected which would have taken much of the burden away from Councils. Like many others I wasn't a fan of the structure either but there was a base to build from, instead the coalition throws out the baby with the bath water and has offered no solution to replace it, saying things like Councils are responsible for setting rates. Well Councils are sending a message to Central Government that they are chronically underfunded.

I have always thought instead of having the 3 or 4 water behemoths that 3 Waters proposed, why wasn't there a consolidation to Regional Council level. Still keeps it local, but also amalgamated for efficiency.

NZ used to redistribute around 20% of its national tax take to Councils, over the years that percentage has pretty much halved. So much so that NZ has one of the lowest redistributions of Central tax take to local government in the OECD.

Central Government could at least give the Councils the GST they collect on rates as a starting point.

[nztx]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-ba...HYUJRVUXFUG6A/


Hawke’s Bay rates hikes: Havelock North property could pay $700 annually for public transport


Change in Rating base from Land value to Capital Value by HB Regional Council

159% Increase in one captive ratepayers HNRC Rates as a result - and $700 transport levy ???

Absolutely extortionate & Ridiculous - HB Regional Council !


And done at a time when COL, Interest rates, and all other costs are generally rising in recessionary times.

About as smart as another Hawkes Bay Council looking to try to syphon off 25% increases for broken infrastructure it mostly didn't bother opening too many eyes to until hit with a 50 or 100 year King shot, then tries recover a large pile in how few years ?

Remember those old bridges largely ignored and costing 37% more over last year's or month's costs would generally be fairly largely subsidised by Central Govt .. well wouldn't they ?

So much for the just having to wave the CYCLONE flag to try to fix all ills in one foul swoop

What a bunch of Clueless Councils we have in the Hawkes Bay



Have the finance brains @ HB Regional Council remained waterlogged & started rotting ?

Did any of of the HBRC blockheads in the back office consider likely affects on higher capitalised properties
and the associated likely rort for things they did not, and would not use ?

Same idiots who were involved in the vast & extensive Ruataniwha Dam C*ck -up or not ?



Merger of the Hawke's Bay Councils some years ago appear to have been the correct move
except the correct merger proposal was never considered or presented

That would have been HB Regional Council de-established and done away with and each of the
other councils picking up what HBRC was doing in their own Council territory,.

And of course with it - HBRC's Port of Napier shareholding vested in a Community Trust in the same
way as Unision is owned by & for benefit of beneficiaries HB Power Consumer Trust


Port of Napier would probably operate more efficiently and see itself as having been granted a new life without the burden of HBRC leg irons and chains draped it's neck


Far too much Council ROT, wastage of Resources and Cluelessness over the years appear on the HBRC past track record.

How many millions were wasted across a decade or more by HBRC on the "Done Deal" Ruataniwha Dam project ?

Who ultimately paid for all that ?

They likely thought after it got canned & their rates got hiked that was probably more like a fairly "Dumb Deal" and they can be forgiven for thinking that to, after those responsible for pushing the grand scheme got pushed themselves

For those with longer memories - in around 2002 this was a Council which levied no Regional Council rates due to a Port of Napier windfall it received and has since displayed many if not all of the bad financial habits other Councils now display, the least of which is regarding it's captive ratepayers as a Council ATM to be raided once a year


It appears time that getting rid of the extra layer of expensive, unnecessary & mindless greedy Local Body Bureaucracy that HBRC appears to now represent is once again in need of consideration by Central Government, as part of a wider in depth investigation of the affairs & conduct of all NZ Local Bodies


What would a referendum now likely produce post- Cyclone and after the Local HB Councils have played their little ring a rosies around vastly hiked rates and oncosts based on Cyclone excuses, with one at the centre of the Cyclone front also playing Capital Value games after all that's happened ?


Let's put it in the CAPITAL VALUES that HB Regional Council HBRC so dearly loves now:


BE GONE WITH YOU - HBRC .. The Hawke's Bay does not need the extra Layer of Bureaucratic Local Body Bunkum, selective madness / blindness and wasteful excesses that you represent

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/timeli...GUMA3WTAKOK3Q/


Timeline of a flood in Wairoa: Hawke’s Bay Regional Council defends decisions around river mouth opening



A New Storm, Yet Another Disaster

The same Hawkes Bay Regional Council - another Fail & large Screw up .. yet again

Was the weather forecasts late or didn't arrive or were all asleep at home dreaming
fuzzies at the time "Get Moving - Sort It Out" was needed ?

Perhaps all at HBRC have forgotten what a storm is or looks like in just a little over 15 months
and the water has to go somewhere .. doesn't it ?

Nothing much learned after the cyclone, obviously

A bunch of ineffective halfwits - anyone ?

Time for a Name Change for this mob ?

It's almost offensive for Ratepayers to be collared into feeding the contributions bowl for this mob ..
when this sort of thing repeatedly comes out as the answer they deliver up.

I feel sorry for the Wairoa Council & Wairoa people being put through this ordeal at the hands of the marvellous amazing HBRC lumbering fix & screw up managery


On TV News - the Wairoa Locals are very wide awake on why this happened and who the mob responsible for it are

[Ferg]

It sounds like they tried to clear the bar but the weather beat them to it and a local company lost some equipment in the process:

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other...ar/ar-BB1oUdyU

Although it sounds like this work should have started long before this recent weather event.

[nztx]

It sounds like they tried to clear the bar but the weather beat them to it and a local company lost some equipment in the process:

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other...ar/ar-BB1oUdyU

Although it sounds like this work should have started long before this recent weather event.

Indeed, however it seems that the Wairoa Mayor was in direct contact with HBRC well before according one
news account. No real excuse for the FAILURE by HBRC to move their backsides earlier.

Not a good showing from HBRC not moving when asked then screaming loudly when was too late & did considerable
damage to a vulnerable community still recovering from the cyclone event.

What was HBRC's immediate response in the Cyclone in February 2023 again ?

As good, more largescale failures, or asleep tucked up in bed .. again ?

As earlier, if this is the best response from HBRC, then time for for some surgery, disbanding of HBRC altogether
and fire the bits into the other Councils in the Region. No great loss if Ormsby & her mates get sent down the road.

The Napier Port company would probably also prosper & grow well - freed from the shackles of current clueless
restrictive deadweight of HBRC, in a new Ratepayer Trust structure, similar to Unison


No-one will forget the vast millions of Ratepayer funds that HBRC wasted on the aborted CHB 'Done Deal' Dam project, Undoubtedly resulting in further hikes hoisted on Ratepayers through increasing rates.

Then the regular recurring expensive circus on water rights & metering hoisted on growers & producers.

If there is one Regional Council in the area worthy of a ticket for burning, destroying & wasting considerable value in the Region - then that nomination would have to go to HBRC.

There are other Councils in the region which by and large function reasonably well .. to many the question must be asked - what do HBRC actually do that is productive in the region - that would not otherwise happen - probably better & more efficiently, without them but in better structuring & formats ?