Has local government been thrown a lifeline with the release of “The Future for Local Government” review _ which offers significant financial assistance as the bait but with a major downscaling of local voices at the new table?
While commentators see the proposed funding solutions as valuable, the amalgamation proposals would leave few representatives to champion local issues.
According to the review, new funding could include:
- councils having a share of locally-raised GST;
- Crown paying council rates on its schools, hospitals and the consevation estate;
- ratepayer financing scheme with low-cost ratepayer loans for insulation, solar panels etc on new homes;
- rates postponement/delay option;
- one billion a year to help council infrastructure programmes;
- new climate change adaptation fund.
As leader of a small, cash-strapped local council, Mayor Martin Connelly is unequivocal.
“I strongly endorse … the need for local government to to have access to additional funding sources, including directly from government,” he told The Martinborough Star.
“It might not be well known but central government’s tax policies over the last 100 years have seen the Government’s share of GDP rise from about 6% to 35%, while local government’s share has remained around 2%,” he said.
He also endorsed the need to strengthen local democracy and improve the opportunities for locals to have a say over local matters, and the report’s call for a four-year term for councils.
“I think their recommendation to invest in democratic innovations, including citizen juries, and participatory democracy processes has a lot of promise,” he added with a nod to international ideas like Citizen’s Assemblies.
As for the report’s recommendation for slashing the number of local bodies from nearly 80 to 15, Connelly is adamant: “I think this is a terrible idea.”
For example, the more citizens per elected representative, the lower the voting figures go. With the merger of many councils into the Auckland Super City, Auckland now has the lowest voting figures of anywhere in the country, he noted.
By contrast, “SWDC and several other less populated rural councils continue to have voting figures at a much higher level. And amalgamated councils do not show cost savings either, Auckland now having the highest rates in the country,” he said.
Worse, the SWDC area will end up with much reduced representation in a cut-down local body system _ “maybe two councillors.” Already Wairarapa has just one member on the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
A final thought: “many councils will struggle to deal with the recommendations of this report while they’re still caught up in the Affordable Waters reforms. the RMA reforms and dealing with the serious consequences of recent cyclones and flooding events.”
Masterton Mayor Gary Caffell and Carterton Mayor Ron Mark also supported of a number of the proposals in the final report, with both endorsing its funding ideas.
