Taxpayers’ Union Launches Council CEO Rich List

The Taxpayers’ Union has today launched its Council Chief Executive Rich List – ranking CEOs 2023 pay packets from highest to lowest.

Ratepayers have a right to know how much they’re forking out to keep the top brass living in luxury, and now all that information is available in one easy leaderboard.

The top 5 highest paid Chief Executives were as follows:

1. Phil Wilson (Auckland Council) - $648,900
2. Dr Pim Borren (Otago Regional Council) - $595,924
3. Bill Bayfield (Hawke’s Bay Regional Council) -$584,000
4. Dawn Baxendale (Christchurch City Council) - 543,943
5. Marty Grenfell (Tauranga City Council) - $537,024

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said:

“Local government pencil pushers are overpaid, that won’t be a surprise to anyone. But the scale of it is staggering. Whilst Kiwi families are having to tighten their belts, some of these Chief Execs will be wearing second belts to hold up their overstuffed pockets.

“Councils crying poverty are still chucking five figure salary hikes at fat cat chief execs. And with families’ rates bills spiralling out of control, the question is what have the CEOs done to earn them?

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. With layers upon layers of managers all the way down, council salary bills are fit to burst. If these CEOs can’t find ways to trim the fat, there need to be targets on their overbloated pay packets which cost ratepayers around $27 million a year.”

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