Raglan faces rising rates but apart from a bit of noise on facebook no one seems to care that much.
Dennis Amoore, our Community Board Chair has expressed surprise at how few people got in touch with him to complain about rate-rises this year. Given that we published calculations showing our targeted wastewater rate is going to double over the next nine years (from $1800 this year) this is surprising.
It’s not as surprising though as the reaction at the recent Meet The Candidates event.
One candidate has been publicly critical of the questions we asked as hosts of the event, saying that there should have been more focus on rates. They might be surprised to hear that I agree.
Given the effectiveness of Ruth Richardson’s Taxpayer’s Union campaign to get rates in the headlines we were expecting a barrage of rates-related questions from the audience but instead we got none.
Because we assumed the audience would ask about rates, our pre-planned questions were about other issues to make sure the candidates were tested on a broad range of topics.
We used a 15 minute break halfway through the event to give the audience time to write their questions down and received 37 in total. Instead of rates, people focused on things Raglan is known for like environmental issues, our relationship with Mana Whenua and even international issues.
Because of this I threw in a question at the last minute, asking the candidates to give us some concrete ideas for reducing rates – without resorting to slogans or vague promises to be tough on council spending.
The result was very enlightening because apart from a minority who talked about combining services with other councils or being clever about council contracts most candidates couldn’t help but give us slogans and vague promises. Not surprisingly the audience gave them a hard time but, in the end, it was another sign of how difficult it is to solve the rates problem.
I also wonder if people in Whaingaroa understand what we get for our rates after the problems we had in 2016 with raw sewerage entering the harbour on a regular basis that year.
With our community angry about ‘no-swim’ signs going up on busy holiday weekends the council laid out the costs of upgrading our system and we decided to spend the money required to sort it out.
Despite what some posts on the Raglan Noticeboard might have us believe we actually spent the money wisely and no longer have a problem like we did in 2016. Water quality should also be improving further now that the new wastewater treatment plant is operating and the land-based discharge project is in the works too.
I bet the people of Havelock North also understand what good infrastructure means because thousands of them got sick and four even died when their water infrastructure failed them in 2016.
The national inquiry that followed found there was a “widespread systemic failure among water suppliers” throughout the country and that this was a problem that could occur again if we didn’t do something. This was after several decades of candidates pledging to cut the rates that fund our infrastructure – just like we have this election.
I thought about ending this piece here but want to be clear that this is not an apology for incompetent councils – and nor have I forgotten that people are struggling to pay rates in a way that we never used to in this country.
Just like the issues of homelessness, the working poor, and children arriving at school hungry, the rates problem has occurred alongside economic changes made at the government level and if we think we can solve it by pointing our finger at councils we’re going to be very disappointed.
In the end though I suspect that Raglan would quite like lower rates, but not at the expense of our health or the things that make this place unique.