Mr Yule released his own figures from Hastings District Council's finance department in response, saying Mr Dalton's table was "miles off" and he had "no idea" how it had been sourced.
"It's so erroneous, it paints a very untrue picture. Effectively what they're trying to do is make us look far worse than we actually are. The motivation has clearly been to try and make people in Napier fearful about Hastings' financial position. I'm getting a bit tired of this relentless criticism."
Mr Yule's figures showed money owing on external loans for Hastings at $45 million, rather than almost $79 million.
Mr Dalton denied his table was a criticism of Hastings.
"There was no intention to make Hastings look bad at all, the intention was simply to correct the misinformation in the market."
His table had total debt for Napier and Hastings at about $54 million and almost $111 million respectively, but Mr Yule's figures had Hastings' total debt at almost $88 million. Mr Yule said he "did not accept for one minute that the Hastings District was some sort of basket case".
"It's in a really good space. Its debt per head of population is in the bottom third of councils in New Zealand, so there's nothing to worry about. "
He said the amount of money owed by Hastings on external loans hadn't changed much since 1989, when it owed $42 million. Napier effectively had no debt because of funds raised through developing the land which came out of the sea in the 1931 earthquake. "Hastings didn't have such a luxury."
Mr Yule said he would write to the Local Government Commission today, formally asking it to give an independent breakdown of the finances of Napier, Hastings, Wairoa, CHB and Hawke's Bay Regional Councils.
Chairwoman of pro-amalgamation lobby group A Better Hawke's Bay Trust, Rebecca Turner, called Mr Dalton's figures an "incomplete, inaccurate and misleading summary".
"Napier charges interest on its internal debt to ratepayers, Hastings does not ... Hastings District covers an area 50 times that of Napier," she said. "Hastings District has many large farming properties with large rate bills whereas Napier, being only one 50th the size of Hastings district, is almost exclusively urban. This obviously affects the average."
On the other side of the amalgamation debate, Hawke's Bay Democratic Action Association chairman Ian Dick suggested Mr Yule had removed internal loans from his figure for Hastings' debt.
"I just know Napier is in a healthy situation and Hastings isn't ... if amalgamation goes ahead, Napier people are going to be helping repay Hastings' debt."
In response to the comparison, Hastings District Councillor and chartered accountant Wayne Bradshaw said Mr Dalton's figures appeared to be for the current year up to June 30 2015, while Mr Yule's figures were for the year to June 30 2014. He said by giving last year's figures, Mr Yule had showed Mr Dalton's figures for Hastings "aren't far off the mark". "Napier accounts for its debt on interest and principal, whereas Hastings doesn't - it just uses interest only. All Napier has tried to highlight is that both councils have different ways of accounting for debt."
