Rates rocketing upward

Rates, above inflation, wa-a-ay above benefit and most wage rises, accelerate % upon %, year after year. 

 Keep in mind 2019's was not 8% added to 2018 rates demand, then 7.4% added to 2018 rates bill.

Now it's 7.4% added to (Rates2018 + [7.4 of Rates2018]].

 Next year it will be {pick-a-number that is wa-a-ay more than household income increases}%  -  added to 2020 rates demand $. 

This is not a steady line upward, it is hockey-stick shape on a graph.

Are we getting value for money?

Lee Vandervis‎ to Dunedin News Uncut

DCC STAFF COSTS INCREASE 7.4% on top of last year's 8% increase should have been front page news since it blows the rates increase well beyond the promised 5% limit.

Lee Vandervis

The only hope of reducing the DCC staff-proposed 6.5% rates increase was to reject the staff-proposed 7.4% increase in staff costs for this Annual Plan. This on top of last year's staff-proposed 8% increase in staff costs, when inflation was only 1.6%!
Only Cr. Radich supported my moderate motion to reduce staff costs increase to a generous 3% increase, but everyone else had their rubber stamp out...

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Thursday, 30 January 2020

Low-income rates burden concern

By Chris Morris

...[C]ouncillors met yesterday to consider what to include in the council’s 2020-21 draft annual plan, before public consultation. The pre-draft budget includes a 6.5% rates increase, fuelled in part the need to offset a $3.5million drop in operating surplus at the Green Island landfill.

Lee Vandervis

 

The rates increase was also fuelled by an extra $5.3million in depreciation costs, and plans to add 27 new fulltime-equivalent staff, among other costs.
The extra staff would add $4.8million (or 7.4%) to the council’s staff costs, but many were needed to tackle work associated with city growth, council chief executive Sue Bidrose said yesterday.
Others, such as building consent officers, would generate their own revenue for the council, she said.
The wider budget likewise reflected the demands placed on the council to cater for growth in Dunedin, Dr Bidrose said.
But she also sounded a note of caution, saying last year’s property revaluations in Dunedin shifted more burden for rates revenue on to the city’s lower value properties.
Some lower-value parts of the city had seen the biggest increases in valuations, and some households in those areas would face a larger proportion of the 6.5% rates increase, she said....
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/low-income-rates-burden-concern

Some of the comments on facebk:

• 

  Dene McDonald So essentially, to ease the burden on business and people on low income, we charge people on middle income (who are also struggling because they don't get government handouts) more.
• 

  Steve McKenzie Did the proposal include a cost benefit study? Whats the benefit to the ratepayers?
• 

  Lee Vandervis Negative benefit for ratepayers, positive benefit for staff, no cost-benefit.
• 

  Steve McKenzie So there is there any requirement for the council to act in the best interests of the ratepayers?
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