Roads burden taxes farmers
Some Wairarapa farmers are facing rates hikes of thousands of dollars as Masterton District Council signals a 14.8% average rise for rural ratepayers in the coming year.
Castlepoint Station owner Anders Crofoot pays around $90,000 a year in district and regional council rates, and the coming increase meant he would need to find an extra $14,000 a year.
“Given that a huge amount of the rural rate goes toward roading, and given what the last couple of years have done to our roads, it’s not surprising,” he said.
This latest increase comes on the back of
It was a magnet for paint sniffers, drunks and rubbish. Then, with the removal of two bolts, and against the advice of Wellington City Council, it was gone.
Wellington bar owners Greig Wilson and Jose Ubiaga said they had been trying to get police and the council to take action about a picnic table recently installed at Te Aro Park. It had become a magnet, Wilson said, for “drinking alcohol, smoking weed, sniffing glue”. It was also regularly surrounded by rubbish
Te Aro Park has long been a problem area and, in 2020, a report detailed “a consistent level of antisocial behaviour” there, with issues including drug dealing, violence and sexual assault reported every hour of every day. The area was part of the reason the $7.7 million Pōneke Promise was launched to try to improve city safety.
But then a picnic table was put in the park as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival, which began on February 16. several years of significant increases in Masterton rural rates. Roads on Wairarapa’s east coast took a battering in last year’s cyclones, causing tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.
The council’s finance spokesman, David Paris, said there had been a “stepchange” in roading costs, which had risen by 16% over the last year. Rural ratepayers made up 22% of the district’s rating base, but they paid 70% of the council’s share of the government-subsidised roading programme, and that was a key driver behind their proportionately higher rates burden. “That’s because 70% of the work is done on the rural roads.” Masterton’s urban rates are set to rise by
Tables were painted as part of the festival but the placement was entirely the choice of the council, festival director Vanessa Stacey said. The event would much rather have them outside venues.
Wilson said he and other nearby businesses complained to police and the council about problems such as rubbish piling up, but nothing happened.
So on Tuesday evening, he warned on social media that he would remove the “grotty” table and take it to the tip.
“Please do not remove the picnic table,” the council wrote back. “I do believe that is owned by the New Zealand Fringe Festival. Our street cleaning team tidy the city every day, so any waste will be removed tonight.”
But when Wilson and Ubiaga arrived yesterday, rubbish was piled high. They packed it up, and unbolted the table and took it outside the Fringe Festival offices.
“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than get permission from the council,” Wilson said.
“Unbelievable,” he added, after learning the council had put the table in Te Aro Park.
“They might as well hand out bags of 9.3% for the 2024-25 financial year.
Crofoot said he would like to see other models for funding roading. “MDC is modifying their assumptions so that rural roading is more heavily apportioned to rural ratepayers. Certainly for Castlepoint Station, we do not put a significantly heavier proportion of wear and tear on the road.
“There are significant numbers of urban, and outside the district, ratepayers that use the Masterton-Castlepoint Rd.“
Paris said property valuations were also being reassessed, which could affect how costs were distributed according to the rating policy. This meant the 14.8% figure was an average, and some properties’ increases could be higher while some may be lower.
Emergency repairs to cyclone-damaged meth and bottles of glue.”
A council spokesperson said it was arranging for extra cleaning as needed.
“We’re very much aware of this group, who are all housed (most have permanent housing, not emergency housing). They are all connected with appropriate support, roads were subsidised with a 76% contribution by the Government, but the other 24% still represented a $4 million cost for Masterton.
Wainuioru farmer William Beetham said that with farm costs increasing, rates were yet another burden for farmers. “The red meat sector ... is facing some short-term severe headwinds, and so increased costs like this do put a significant strain on sheep and beef farmers. We’re really concerned about rural rates increases and the service we actually get for those increases.”
Bideford farmer Jamie Falloon said there was a lot of wasteful spending in roading. “It feels like an open chequebook because they make us pay the rates and if we don’t, they take our land off us.” however have made the decision to spend their time together around Manners St.”
The council was working with DCM, the police and its Pōneke Promise partners on the “complex” issue, the spokesperson said.
Police said they continued to have a “highly visible presence” in the city.