FROM THE OTHER SIDE Our council needs to live within its means

• Published date: 11 April 2024
• Author: Peter Jackson Peter Jackson was editor of the Northland Age for 44 years. He retired in July 2021 but continues to comment on topics and local issues important to him.
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

There is no doubt Eric displayed the symptoms of this particular malady, which for most is only fleeting. They show all the signs when they are courting us, then cure themselves once elected

Eric had this quaint theory that when it came to setting rates, councils past had had it all wrong. He reckoned they should look at their anticipated revenue for the coming year, and then calculate what they could do with that money. Instead, the council decided what it needed/wanted/would like to do, then calculated how much its “customers” would have to pay to make that possible.

What other business does that?

Nothing has changed. We’re told now that the FNDC plans to hike rates by around 30 per cent over the next three years, starting with a 16.5 per cent increase this coming year. Grey Power reckons that’s going to force more people (than have done so already) to sell their homes and move into campervans because they won’t be able to pay the rates. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do suspect that some people are going to have great difficulty paying.

I accept that Cyclone Gabrielle did a lot of damage in the lower Far North and that someone needs to pay for repairs. I am yet to be persuaded that a 30 per cent rate increase over the next three years is the only way out, and I have yet to hear a single solitary word about the council looking for savings elsewhere to help meet that cost.

Casual observation suggests a lot of money is being saved by not maintaining unsealed roads. The ones I drive on are certainly deteriorating at a rate of knots, and the kindest interpretation I can give is that the money is being spent elsewhere. I am prepared to accept I might be wrong.

Meanwhile, we are told that it will cost $41 million to fix the road damage done by Gabrielle, and $15m worth of that work has already been done, without a rate increase. That still leaves a lot of money to find, but it would be nice if the council told us what it has done to reduce spending elsewhere. Don’t hold your breath.

Perhaps it tells us something about how this current council thinks when it says it will continue to spend our money complying with the previous Government’s plans for reducing road speed limits. It might not have escaped your attention that the current Government has scuttled that policy, but our mayor says it’s a ripper idea.

This will cost around $10m over four years. That money will also pay for “traffic-calming” measures which will do nothing to reduce the road toll but...