Rampant rates anger farmers
Farmers like myself are questioning the priorities and fiscal discipline of New Zealand’s councils as rates takes continue to outstrip inflation and Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Analysis by Federated Farmers shows the CPI went up 21 per cent between 2006-2016 but on average the hike in rates over the same period by New Zealand’s 13 city, 54 district and 11 regional councils was 77 per cent.
To be fair, New Zealand’s population went up during this time but only by about 12 per cent and the consequent growth in the rating base doesn’t come within a country mile of covering the jump in rates bills.
The demands for ratepayers to cough up seem to be unstoppable.
The ongoing trend of rates to rapidly out-pace inflation is greatly resented by farmers, for whom council bills can be a significant component of their farm costs.
Federated Farmers has put in an enormous amount of time and effort in the last few years working to ensure that councils’ plans for waterways and other environmental issues are practical, fair and based on science and evidence.
That’s matched by our submissions and lobbying on council costs, and the tendency of some councils to get carried away with growth plans and ‘extras’ with not enough recognition of the impact on the ordinary people and businesses footing the bill.
Federated Farmers wages an ongoing battle with councils in many districts about rates burden unfairness, such as when revaluations push up rural property values. We are keeping an eye on councils in areas such as Waipa, where there has just been a revaluation.
Land and improvement values can have little or no bearing on the property owners’ consumption of council services in relation to others. Yet some councils are reluctant to use tools such as annual charges, differentials and rates remittances to smooth out big rises in the face of factors such as farm incomes taking a severe buffeting in last few years.
Other councils put up the rates to fund ‘growth initiatives’ and tourism but overlook the fact that farmer businesses are also significant employers and drivers of district wealth, and it may be just as pertinent to the progress of a district to keep their rates bills down. Farmers are used to cutting their cloth according to prevailing conditions.
Part of the federation’s work involves putting a huge resource fighting to keep rates low. We are the only farming advocacy group which does this nationwide, and we make the voices of farmers heard on both annual and longterm community plans.
Championing such issues frequently persuades councillors to heed reality and rein in their more fanciful schemes and the work often saves people more in rates than the Feds’ annual membership fee. And please don’t forget to put in a submission on Healthy Rivers Plan Change 1 before March 8. We want to see 1000 submissions from individual farmers to support the case Federated Farmers will lodge on behalf of the sector.
The Waikato Regional Council will be challenged to keep rates affordable while trying to manage this process to date and into the future.
One of our messages to the council will be that not everyone can afford Rolls Royce council aspirations while commodity prices are volatile and remain low.