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?
this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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I suspect kicking the can down the road for many years. Promising not to raise rates wins votes during council elections I suppose.
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.
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.
Jesus, that's pretty dire all right. Just astonishing the council allowed things to get this bad though.
I think it is a case of decades of a lack of investment and development, combined with the covid hit and international pressures.
We have fallen soo far behind as a country. Auckland took a massive hit to council services a year or so ago, wellington canceling a large number of projects... nothing from Christchurch or Dunedin yet.
The sad thing is there are a lot of nice projects that are going to get cut that were shaping up to make quality of life here better.
I would honestly rather have a big rates rise than cut everything back to nothing, as my kids get the benefit growing up here. I’m already paying more in my combined Hamilton + Waikato rates than my relatives in Auckland anyway.
I think this is the sad reality much of my generation is facing. Things aren't going to get better for us, but we can make it better for the next generation. One less fire to deal with, a bit better infrastructure, better chances to by a house... at the cost of our own limited opportunities.
Yep it seems like it’s part of the human condition. All short term thinking, instead of considering how we’re impacting future generations.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” Etc. etc.
I don't see Canada, US, Aussie, UK etc doing much better judging from the news.
They aren't- NZ is at the whim of global forces as we don't have the economy, population or investment to do anything but follow the crowd.