Pokeno consent stoush heats up
Hamilton doesn’t need new revenue streams but if someone is offering, council won’t turn it down.
This month, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the Productivity Commission will look local government funding and financing and come up with new streams of income.
Hamilton City Council’s newly minted
10-year plan will hoist rates by 9.7 per cent in the first year and 3.8 per cent annually after that.
Council chief executive Richard Briggs welcomes moves to find new money but said it’s not essential.
‘‘Our rates are some of the lowest in the country for a city of our size and our growth,’’ Briggs said. ‘‘If our rates were at a sustainable level and we had growth paying for growth, we’d probably be okay without additional funding mechanisms but if someone gave us extra money, we wouldn’t say no.’’
Increasing rates from a low level is bound to upset ratepayers, he said, but the average current rates bill of $2100 pays for
26 city services.
‘‘I’m going to get shot for saying this but I don’t think the community appreciates the value they get for the services,’’ Briggs said. ‘‘I don’t think we’ve communicated, very well, how good-a-value people get from their rates but maybe looking at other income alternatives will enable us to keep the cost of those services down for the ratepayer so other users of those services can pay as well. It’s the equity argument. That’s what I’m trying to say.’’
The Commission will test the adequacy of local government funding and financing and make recommendations on alternative revenue. It could come in the form of tourism costs, additional funding for roads, infrastructure support for new growth and household rates affordability.
Briggs said third-party contracting services and cross council collaborations could also be brought in to the mix.
‘‘If we had an appropriate funding mechanism that gives us the ability to focus those income streams to those areas – like tourist taxes – that could be directly invested into the costs associated with tourism.’’
Councils are limited by law on how its income can be derived. Business interests must be pubic service, infrastructure-based or regulatory.
About 97 per cent of Hamilton’s income is from rates. The remainder is from fees for council services, subsidies from the NZ Transport Agency and development contributions.
Hamilton Mayor Andrew King warns new income shouldn’t burden the ratepayer any more than it needs to.
‘‘Our council is keen to look at any alternative ways of funding and subsidising rates,’’ King said.
‘‘Personally, I think we have to be careful because either way, the people of this city end up paying if it was another type of tax.’’ A Pokeno homeowner’s fight against a Waikato council just got more expensive.
Waikato District Council are refusing to speak directly to him and the negotiations have gone to the lawyers for both groups.
Joshua Parsons is one of four Pokeno homeowners on the fringes of an aggregate extraction zone. All are being asked to fork out for retrospective resource consents, despite being granted building consents and final compliance code certificates less than two years ago.
Since publicly criticising the Waikato District Council, there’s been radio silence on the council’s end, said Parsons, who is a spokesman for the four. Instead council has hired external lawyers to liaise with Parson’s lawyer over a formal complaint he issued about eight weeks ago.
‘‘They said because I sent a letter through my lawyer, all of the correspondence will now be between two lawyers.
‘‘That’s going to cripple me. Because every time they write a letter and I have to reply, that’s two or three hundred dollars.’’
Parsons expected the issue would boil down to about $5000 in consultancy planning fees associated with the application, as council previously said it would waive council lodgment and processing fees. When he was granted consent for subdivision of family land in 2015, he was advised by surveyors at the time about the extraction zone, but they said no signature from the adjacent land owner would be needed.
But in May, council warned the four owners that they’re too close to the zone and must apply for resource consents before their homes could be declared legal.
‘‘The council have failed us when they issued our consent,’’ Parsons said. ‘‘Heads should be rolling.’’
In a written statement, council said while it aimed to resolve complaints in 10 days, it could take longer with such a complex matter as this.