Campaign Launched to Make Phil Goff Keep His Rates Promises

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has today launched a campaign to make Phil Goff and Auckland Council keep their promises on rates as they pass their 10-year budget.

Ratepayers Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says, “Eighteen months ago, Aucklanders elected Phil Goff on a platform of tackling wasteful Council spending, ‘doing more with less’, and capping rates rises to 2.5% per year. Despite those promises Mr Goff has now proposed a budget that locks in general rate rises of at least 3.5% in eight of the next ten years.”

“In addition to this general rate hike, the Mayor wants new targeted rates, such as his ‘natural environment targeted rate.’ He also wants to introduce a regional fuel tax, set to cost commuters $135 per year (or much more if you commute from outer suburbs). And then there is the proposed Auckland-wide waste management scheme that will cut general rubbish collection to a fortnightly service, for greater cost including a compulsory and costly food scraps pickup scheme.”

“All this extra revenue could be justified if the Council or Mayor had followed through on their promises to cut wasteful spending and find efficiencies. The documents show that this is just not happening.”

Submissions are due in just days, on March 28, 8pm.

“The good news is that we have made it easy for ratepayers to be heard. Our economist and local government researcher have read the lengthy documents involved and written a submission targeting the issues named above.”

“We have boiled down our submission into three summaries that you can submit directly, or use as a template for your own submission, all via our website.”

--> Click here to submit on the Council’s failure to tackle wasteful spending and the plan to break pre-election promises on rates.
--> Click here to submit against the proposed regional fuel tax.
--> Click here to submit on the proposed Auckland-wide waste management system which will see refuse collection halved for most Aucklanders.

“Every submission counts to send a message to Council that they need provide value for money to ratepayers, and deliver on the Mayor’s promise of doing more with less,” says Ms Holmes.

ENDS

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