Rates Revolts

Waiheke Island residents are understandably upset their rates are going up by 50% or more and are talking a rates revolt.

I have never been a fan of using rates on property values to fund local government. It is unfair to lower income residents with high property values (often retired persons) and the change in property values each year makes it very hard to see how spend and tax crazy your local body is. Plus they produce huge increases for some individuals.

My personal preference for local government funding is:
(a) user charges for commercial services such as roads, water, sewerage
(b) a local income tax for public good activities such as libraries, parks

Until such time as I convince 61 MPs to abolish rates, we are stuck with them. What might be a useful law to look at is something which restricts the rate increase for any individual in any year to say 20% maximum. This way individuals and families can plan their expenditure with some degree of certainty.