ARC rate bills fan flames of revolt

By ANNE BESTON

A ratepayer revolt is building against an Auckland Regional Council rates rise of 200 per cent or more.

Calls are flooding in to a rates hotline as householders threaten to boycott the new levy.

The hotline, contracted by the ARC at a cost of more than $2 million for the next three years, fielded 800 calls yesterday morning. That number was expected to double by the end of the working day.

Ratepayer associations are also receiving calls from people asking whether they should refuse to pay.

"It's bordering on civil disobedience," said Rodney Combined Ratepayers' Association chairman Ron Mottram.

"We are very, very concerned about the methodology of rating the ARC has used."

The increase comes as the council switches to a direct rating system, at a cost of $3.2 million. Its rate was previously included in local councils' bills, making it less obvious.

The ARC has chosen a "capital value" system, calculating rates on land and buildings. Most councils rate on land alone.

Adding to ratepayer anger is the transport levy, rising 34 per cent this year but hitting some areas harder than others.

Huapai resident Ron Bennett said he and his wife were facing an ARC rates rise of $61, to $190, but residents just down the road had negligible increases.

"If they want to levy people in this way, everybody has to pay the same," he said.

Glenfield resident Kim Taylor's bill was typical for the North Shore, her rates rising from $52.05 to $155.68 - a 200 per cent increase.

"To add insult to injury, my bill arrived on Friday and if I am to get the very generous $3.89 discount, I have to pay it by the 23rd of July, 2003 - 11 days' notice," she said.

"It is not easy to pay this when one has a mortgage to pay and all the other bills as well."

Orewa Ratepayers' president John Drury has already announced a petition against the increase, saying if 30,000 Orewa residents refused to pay, they could not all be taken to court.

Wayne Tisdall, Takapuna Community Board chairman and former North Shore City Council chief executive, said he had never heard of such a savage rates rise. He faces an increase from $133 to $400.

The 450,000 ratepayers from Warkworth to Drury levied by the ARC make it the biggest rating agency in Australasia. Its rates take this year will be $104 million.

ARC chairwoman Gwen Bull said she believed capital value rating was the fairest system, but the council would listen to submissions from ratepayers.

Apart from transport subsidies, the ARC is responsible for parks, planning and environmental services.

Why they went up

The Auckland Regional Council has adopted a "capital value" rating system calculated on the value of a property, including the house. Most councils rate only land, or "unimproved", value.

To cover a 65 per cent rise in public transport costs, the council's transport levy, which pays for ferries, buses and trains, is going up 34 per cent.

The share that business pays towards the total rates take has dropped by about half because the council has ditched a "differential" system in which commercial rates were double or more the residential rate.

Rates bills have started going out, with the final mailing to inner-city suburbs and the central business district on August 18.

Have your say on the new ARC rates

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