2013 – YOUR CITY – YOUR CALL! #1

2013 – YOUR CITY – YOUR CALL!

It Starts NOW

(Well as far as I am concerned it does)

David Thorton on the recent Auckland Rates Rises

From the 2013 Local Election page here at VOAKL:

View of Auckland will be exclusively shining the light at the upcoming Election and subsequent campaign as incumbent councillors, Local Board members, the mayor, plus candidates wanting the fore-mentioned positions of Office go out and “work the floor” for our vote (the one’s that can be bothered to do so).

Local Government commentator David Thorton has written an opinion piece which was published in today’s North Shore Times.

His opinion piece or shinning the light onto our rates rises is in the embed below

[From North Shore Times]

View this document on Scribd

Up until David’s last two sentences, he has mirrored exactly what was said at the St Heliers and Glendowie Residents Association AGM on Tuesday from peeved ratepayers to the mayor and reflected by me in my 2013 introductory post late Tuesday night. Even the term “Rates Rebellion” got thrown around at that AGM although whether it happens or not is yet to be seen.

Now whether we get a same of the clean-sweep that happened to the former Auckland Regional Council in the 2004 Local Elections to our current Auckland Council is yet to be seen. Remember earlier in the year I have said that unless the Centre-Right have a strong candidate ready to go, Len will be back in for a second term with little problem. I also said that you need a (I think) six seat swing to the Right in order for the Centre-Right to take “control” of Council and implement their agenda. So a bit of work is cut out for the Centre-Right to install a mayor AND achieve a 6-seat swing in order to gain control of Auckland Council. Can that happen – currently I do not believe so but that can change as October 2013 draws nearer.

We also await the passage of Central Government’s Local Government Amendment Bill and see whether their new controls on Council will actually work or not.

In my next post I will repost excerpts of my Long Term Plan submission and the alternatives I proposed in order to get Council finances back on track.

But in the mean time:

Remember as Auckland Ratepayers: