Councils: The Other Side of the Story

BFD contributor Andrew B loves thumping Councils and while some Councils deserve a jolly good thumping, is tarring all Councils with the same brush either honest or fair?

His latest piece claimed “Core services now account for just 40% of rates spending.”  Andrew B may well be able to find a particular Council where that statistic applies but equally, one can easily find a contra-example to prove him wrong.

Clearly the rates income for this Council is 70% of total income.  70% of $110.2m is $77.14m

The core services spending is roads (transportation) 28%, water supply 15%, wastewater 13%, stormwater 5% and solid waste 5%.  The total of those ‘core’ services equals 66%.  66% of $95.3m is $62.9m.

Therefore the percentage of rates spent on core services is 81.5%.  A considerably larger percentage than the 40% claimed by Andrew B.

Some people could claim that parks and libraries are also core services and this would bump the figure even higher.

Next, Andrew B hits out at communications claiming a) that they are actually ‘marketing departments’ only there to ‘justify outrageous decisions’ and b) that they are unnecessary as Councils are monopolies.

A very quick search of the Local Government Act 2002 shows that the word ‘consultation’ occurs 118 times.  Add in ‘consult’ which occurs 51 times.

Councils are legally obliged to consult with their ratepayer base to the point of exhaustion.

It is extremely difficult to do this effectively when, as Andrew B rightly points out, the voter interest in the workings of Councils is minimal. The communications department has to work across digital, radio and print media formats as well as community events, etc etc, to try to connect with ratepayers in order to adequately ‘consult’  or engage in ‘consultation’ as per the Act.

A passing swing is taken at Council debt as well.  Admittedly, there are many Councils that have not used their borrowings wisely or have borrowed to avoid raising rates.  However, cross-generational funding is appropriate for much Council spending.  A pipe is buried in the ground and expected to serve the ratepayers for 50-80 years.  Why should today’s ratepayers fund the entire cost of that pipe when their great-grand children will still be getting the benefit of today’s investment?

The comments were also interesting: (Summarised)

Auckland’s problems are because of a Labour council, we need National in there.

No we don’t. National/Labour politics have no place in local bodies and most Councils get on quite happily without National/Labour/Green divides. Our Council has rabid Greens, National, New Conservative and ‘always voted Labour’ councillors.  Party politics are left outside the Council chamber.

It is interesting to note that the basket-case Councils in New Zealand are mainly those run on party lines and the only party in local government is Labour.

Most of what they do can be done by the private sector.

It would be interesting to see all our roads built and maintained by the private sector and retained in private ownership.  How would we pay to drive on them?  Ditto sewage treatment and pipes?

Hold on to your hats for the Three Waters reforms that are coming from central government. The costs involved will make your eyes water!

Helen gave councils “general competence” which meant they could get involved in whatever they thought was “important”. If you want to fix this, it needs legislation to reverse the “general competence”.

“General competence” does not appear anywhere in the LGA 2002 so does not need reversing.

The sole purpose of local authorities is very clearly set out in the Act

The purpose of local government is—
(a) to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and
(b) to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future.

Councils are monopolies and don’t need marketing, this should be labelled communism.

See comments above.

So bash Councils when they deserve it but please get your facts straight before making sweeping statements.  The MSM is our go-to source for one-sided nonsense.

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