Councils Holding the Country to Ransom

[speights boy]

My understanding is there is rates cashflow relief.
ie: rates attached to the title so the next owner pays the arrears when the property is sold.
I assume that is still current ???

[flyernzl]

Yes because the council should be able to charge whatever they like and if people can't afford it, then they should be forced to sell up.

Is that your point SB?

Of course the Council does not care if you sell and move out of Auckland.
Whoever you sell to has to then pay the rates, so the council still get their money.

[Davo36]

And if not they take your property.

Imagine having a business where you could set your prices to whatever you want. And your customers were forced to pay by law.

And if they didn't pay, you could take their house.

What reason would you have to limit your charges? None.

[eri]

And if not they take your property.

Imagine having a business where you could set your prices to whatever you want. And your customers were forced to pay by law.

And if they didn't pay, you could take their house.

What reason would you have to limit your charges? None.

which is why

they flat out refuse

the line by line cost review

that the royal the commission suggested a couple of years ago

and the business federation? are suggesting now

and why rates will continue to skyrocket

until auckland voters

vote for a mayor + team with cost reduction policies

who wants to live in the world's most unaffordable city?

[flyernzl]

I hate the expression 'line by line review'.

To me, it smacks of sitting around counting the paperclips when any sensible review would immediately close down the whole department as useless and irrelevant.

[Perry]

Imagine having a business where you could set your prices to whatever you want.
And your customers were forced to pay by law.
And if they didn't pay, you could take their house.

You forgot about the penalties and interest they can charge.
Wouldn't it be just if LLs could do that to tenants who were
delinquent payers?

But, to be fair, Councils have to provide certain services by law.

And, one needs to ignore the modernistic claptrap that has
councils calling ratepayers clients or customers. Hello!?!
Clients and customers have choices about their service or
product suppliers. Ratepayers have no such choice.

[eri]

councils don't consider ratepayers clients

they consider everyone in their city as clients

esp. voters

to be fair they do see the injustice of taxing only property owners (and acknowledge that some can't afford endless rates rises)

for services used by everyone in the city

which is why they want the right to tax everyone

either by a poll tax (with a more pc name of course)

fuel taxes

or motorway tolls

no doubt they'd love the right to go the whole usa way

and charge all those taxes at once

[Perry]

Could the Sandy Springs
example work here?

[eri]

social engineering

len and his lefties

must laugh that they can charge us what they like

to be unwilling participants in their experiments

"Our prices are increasing further to dis-incentivise people from driving during one of the busiest times of the day (am peak)," it said.

"The removal of the Early Bird option in December 2014 has not had the desired impact in changing customer behaviour.

A further step is needed to assist in modal shift behaviour from cars to public transport, walking or cycling

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11483949

[speights boy]

Excellent News.
User pays; as it should be.

More user pays tolls, levies and taxes I say.

That will make it a lot easier for the next mayor to limit any rise in rates.
After all, most here are saying that is the person they are going to vote for.

No problem for investors and speculators who don't live in AKL of course.

Auckland CBD parking prices rise

The day rate at three inner-city Auckland car parks is rising by $7 per day, Auckland Transport has announced.
From August 1, the daily parking rate at the Downtown, Civic and Victoria St car park buildings will jump from $17 to $24.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11483949

[Davo36]

Dirty planet defiling car drivers. How dare they have the gall to want to drive to work!

And of course this has nothing to do at all with Pants Down Brown wanting to build a monument to himself i.e. the CRL, and needing to get the rail patronage up. Nothing at all.

[speights boy]

Davo.
Didn't you suggest the council sell the Downtown building a year or so ago ?

[Davo36]

Ummm I don't remember whether I was for the sale or against it actually!

I do know that the council plan to rip it down though i.e. provide less parking. So if the new owners were going to keep it as a car park, then I'd be for that.

But that would go against their public transport mantra, so they wouldn't even want someone else to provide the parking I'd expect.

[speights boy]

People say they are going to vote in a Mayor who stops slugging it to property owners through large increases in rates.
Some have called for a "poll tax type" approach.

Here is a start.
More user pays .

Tax tourists and set road tolls, councils tell Government

Councils should be free to set road user charges and fuel taxes, charge tourists and receive a share of royalties from mining, Local Government NZ says.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11484384

[Davo36]

SB, that's really a story about Paula Bennett telling councils to trim their largesse:

Local Government Minister Paula Bennett has warned councils to look at their own spending and high wages rather than chasing the Crown or ratepayers for more funding.

In a speech this morning, Mrs Bennett turned the tables on Local Government New Zealand, who had earlier made a number of proposals for funding councils, including fuel levies, taxes on tourists, and collecting rates on Crown-owned land.
The minister said Government was aware of the cost pressures local government faced, and acknowledged that it was looking at different mechanisms to manage growth.
"This is a conversation worth having, but first and foremost local government needs to demonstrate that it can live within its means," she said.
"Ratepayers are not willing to pay more for services while they see waste."
Mrs Bennett said council wages and salaries had increased 2.3 per cent in the year to March - higher than the rate of inflation and central government and private sector wages.
She also cited the findings of the latest LGNZ survey, which showed that councils were rates poorly on trust, value for dollars spent, and managing finances.