The Rates Inquiry presently travelling the country is intended to address "the rates problem."
"The rates problem" is at least two problems, but both are related. For most ratepayers, the problem is that rates are too bloody high -- they want lower rates. For councils, the problem appears is insufficient revenue to do all the things they want to do, and to pay for the ballooning wage bill that every upstanding expanding council faces -- what they currently lever out of ratepayers' pockets isn't enough for them; these thieving bastards want the legal power to tap into new forms of theft: bed taxes, poll taxes, visitor taxes and the like.
Libertarianz predicted this very problem when Sandra Lee's Local Government Act was introduced five years ago -- the Let-Councils-Do-Whatever-They-Fucking-Like Act -- the result of all that new fucking around by councils was obvious enough even when first mooted: councils would run out of revenue, and would need to hit ratepayers up for more.
For me, the solution to the rates problem is obvious enough, and it comes down quite simply to what councils do. You might call it the Stop-Doing-So-Fucking-Much solution to "rates problem. If councils stop doing so fucking much then they won't need "new revenue streams," and neither will they need to charge so fucking much either.
So much for the "rates problem."
LINKS: Mayor hopes for new solutions in rates inquiry - Radio NZ
"No!" to more council powers - Peter Cresswell, Libertarianz, Scoop (2001)
RELATED POSTS ON: Politics-NZ
2 comments:
Abso-bloody-lutely.
We need a maximum of six local authorities, with no more than ten councillors each. Require them to cut costs by 30%, and make their four priorities water, rubbish collection, wastewater, and roading, and no more than ten percent of its spending on non-priority areas.
Nothing else should be spent without a referendum at election time.
Freeze rates for five years.
The Local Government minister should have the authority to sack councils for coming up with rate rises at greater than the level of inflation after the rates moratorium.
Building consents should be granted by a national body. There's far too much waste with duplication of consent processes. Take the RMA off the meddling fuckers.
The major problem with local government is that it is a hotbed of petty socialists who are just looking to make names of themselves by spending other people's money, as a career step to central government. Much of what councils do is a total waste of bloody time. It's about time that right wing parties realised that voters don't consider local government to be their friend, and reined in the fast-spending fuckers.
And then watch the pinkos squeal when they have their patch raided, while ratepayers cheer at the results.
Mark Blumsky doesn't think he can do anything as a National backbencher, when he could attack this head on - as Associate Spokesman for Local Government. However, his own woeful record would stand out.
It's a huge frigging "told you so". You see it in Britain, where my council has programmes to deal with everything from bad parenting to promoting reusable nappies to how to keep warm (keep wrapped up and use a heater!).
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