This week Raglan ratepayers received a shock when they checked their letter boxes. A multi-colour glossy brochure from Waikato District Council gave details of what the Rates Review proposal would mean for them. The Statement of Proposal was approved by the Waikato District Council at a recent meeting. When local ratepayers read their personalised brochure they found that their 2011/2012 rates would jump by from 10% to 15% if the proposed system had been in place.
This increase in rates would occur even though Raglan property values had fallen. In his recent column in the Raglan Chronicle, Councillor Baddeley said that Raglan property values had dropped by 6%. A follow-up article in the Chronicle stated that Raglan property values had only fallen by 0.9%.
When property values go down, the normal expectation is that property rates will decrease. What is more important is the relative values of property. And rural properties values have dropped a lot – apparently down 24% across the Waikato District.
As farmers pay a large share of the overall rates collected Council, even though their property values are down, Council will want the same amount of rating money overall, that means it the proposal increases the proposed rate that might be struck.
So in Raglan where valuations have either gone down a little, stayed the same or gone up, then rates will go up a lot. The proposal does away with old separate rates in the new Tuakau Onewhero and lumps them into the general rate across the whole Waikato District. This is another driver for the rates increase proposed for Raglan ratepayers.
Why this has happened is the rates for farmers would have been down a lot, but that is no good for WDC – it can only afford to have them go down slightly with Raglan making up the shortfall.
And then of course WDC will want a cost of living increase of a few percent next year.
So increases will be 15% to 20% for Raglan people and then the fine print says extra will be paid for metered water. And on top of that there are rates to pay to the Waikato Regional Council.
So the overall increase may be over 20% if the rates review proposal goes through as it is now.
The Raglan consultation meeting is on Tuesday 29th November from 6pm to 8pm in the Raglan Town Hall. Consultation closes 19 December 2011.
Raglan ratepayers need to get along to the Town Hall meeting and give their views on the proposal to the WDC. One local ratepayer pointed out to the Raglan Website that the glossy multi-colour brochure used to tell people about the huge increase was upsetting and an example of Council spending out of control.
And fill in the rate review feedback forms posted out and send them in.
Or email your submission to consult@waidc.govt.nz
Read this article with intrigue here are 6 years later and the council are once again increasing the rates by at least 20 %
Where is the mandate to do this I am sure that Raglan people don’t support these sort of increases
I am very worried that we will see our elderly rated out of this town along with the those on benefits and fixed incomes
Where is the rate payers association ?and why has the council only given us three options in the Annual Plan all for increases where is the option for the council to control spending and rein in spending?
When I was Chair of the Raglan Community Board, I was very surprised that I didn’t get any support from the community when I tried to limit rate increases.
Yes where are the missing options? e.g. Do more with less OR Council executives take a 30% pay cut as their contribution.