Cut spending, stop hiking rates, say petitioners
A group of Hamilton business owners have started a petition to stop the council from hiking up rates and passing the cost of what they say are unpopular projects on to residents.
It frustrates longtime residents Tom Andrews, a former roading engineer who owns Classics Museum and has property interests and Jo Reeder, to see Hamiltonians facing large bills.
“We've already had people letting us know that they're going to have to sell their houses because they cannot afford (rates) on top of the cost of living crisis,” said Reeder, who is part of City Watch.
The group’s website highlights local body spending and changes like urban design, climate measures and ‘electromagnetic pollution’ it says are caused by international agendas.
Toni Hamlin who is also helping the petition, said she could afford the proposed rates rise, but that cost would be passed onto her tenants and would make it challenging for her children to buy a house.
She also thinks the rates rise is not the “unfortunate reality” as marketed by the council, and had made the LTP submission seemingly a tickbox exercise.
The trio, along with Mark Flyger have made their own submissions, and formed an unofficial group to start the petition, asking for an independent assessment of the plan and pause the LTP until that assessment is completed.
The group has a petition calling for a stop to Hamilton rate rises on change.org
The group has done their own calculations they say show the rates rise is not necessary if the council runs more efficiently with a focus on core responsibilities. The group thinks the council lacks the business management skills needed to take them out from the debt.
“We're talking about spending hundreds of millions of dollars. It's about money, isn't it?” For example, Flyger calculated the essential staffing level should be 995 people, costing $95m based on 2017 levels when he said the city was run well, but accounting for growth.
This contrasted with the 1469 full time equivalent staff during the 2022/2023 financial year the council had and the dfart long term plan showing a $131m cost.
“There is plenty of income coming into the box. There's a spending problem,” said Andrews. Some of the unnecessary spending the group wanted to highlight includes roading projects such as in-lane bus stops, car park removals, and cycle lanes they said had made roads less safe.