Auckland Grey Power is holding a meeting in Mt Albert today on the council's 10-year budget, saying the city's elderly population will struggle to pay proposed higher rates.
Anne-Marie Coury, President of Auckland Grey Power, said about 7 per cent of Auckland's population is dependent on superannuation and "some of these people own homes, and will struggle to maintain them, let alone heat them, if their rates continue to rise".
The council is proposing an overall rates increase of 3.5 per cent from July, but for households the average increase is 5.6 per cent, due to new property revaluations and a plan to reduce the amount of rates paid by business.
"The bare truth will hurt when the new rates bills arrive in August," Ms Coury said.
Ms Coury said Aucklanders understood the need to tackle the city's transport problems, and raised the alternative option of a middle way by the youth lobby group Generation Zero.
