Not knowing the history (and the article doesn't delve into it), how did Hamilton fuck up their finances so bad that these are now their only options?

[–] eagleeyedtiger 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suspect kicking the can down the road for many years. Promising not to raise rates wins votes during council elections I suppose.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 1 year ago

This is what it is; campaigning on "No rates rises", will almost always get you a bunch more votes. So investment is always kept to an absolute minimum.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 5 points 1 year ago

Its not just a Hamilton problem, it extends to essentially all councils, everywhere. They have increasing compliance and service costs but since the reforms in the 80s have realistically only had rates as a way of generating revenue to pay for things. That's one of the reasons why Three Waters was happening; it was an acknowledgement that there was no way councils could pay for necessary improvements so instead of expecting them to fail, it would be more centralised and allow government to fund it.

Have a look at the graph Fig 6 in this study which shows how funding for local councils changed over time. https://oag.parliament.nz/2014/assets/part3.htm

Of course, the services they provided changed as well - they weren't responsible for power, but the cost to the end user just shifted from going to a council to going to increasingly privatised lines companies etc.