Nearly voting time at council elections
When you exercise your vote in October, make it count towards candidates who understand the rural community.
Last week I spoke about uncontested local election candidates who get a free pass on any accountability for their part in current issues.
It is so important that farmers get out and vote for candidates who can better represent them.
If we don’t it makes the job of Federated Farmers so much harder.
The sad truth is the farming community is stuck with an old system of capital-based rates versus the central government’s existing tax on earnings.
Comparable to other residents, farmers pay significant sums of money to fund community services. It feels like we’re the ATM machines that keep councils’ lights on.
As Federated Farmers has argued for many years, land and capital value rates tend to allocate a larger portion of costs for council activities and services to owners of high value properties.
High country farmers for example, may own thousands of hectares of land which leads to a higher valuation. However, profitability is lower due to current commodity prices.
Competition amongst buyers drives prices up, including overseas buyers after their next prestigious asset.
People may be against overseas ownership but by voting for a council which increases rates or forces excessive conditions upon on these farmers, it erodes farmers’ cashflow and makes the properties unaffordable to own.
With all of this in mind I’ve put together some tips for farmers and commonsense advice for potential candidates:
For prospective councillors, I have the following advice: Remember, every vote counts. If you don’t exercise your right to vote, don’t complain about your excessive rates and councils who don’t play ball.
Chris Lewis is Waikato president of Federated Farmers.