KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Mayor John Banks wants to prevent big rates increases hitting tens of thousands of low- and middle-income ratepayers while he gets a rates reduction on his $3.8 million Remuera home.
His message has pleased the right-leaning Citizens & Ratepayers ticket, which has acted to soften the impact of its rating policy on ratepayers vulnerable to the recession.
Figures obtained by the left-leaning City Vision ticket show C&R's earlier rating policy would lead to 10 per cent-plus rates rises for more than 40 per cent of households while the "city's millionaires" would get a rates cut.
The proposed overall rates increase is 2 per cent, but C&R's rating policy and a property revaluation exercise this year create big fluctuations.
Mr Banks said he would find it hard to live with himself during the recession if his rates went down and struggling families' rates went up.
"I can pay my own rates in Remuera, but I know that a lot of working families, especially those likely to lose their jobs, will really struggle."
Mr Banks, who has previously backed C&R's rates policy of evening out the rates burden between high- and low-value properties, called for a halt to the philosophical battle over the uniform annual general charge.
The charge has divided the left and the right. A high charge benefits high-value property owners and a low charge benefits low-value property owners.
The C&R caucus met yesterday and reduced a planned uniform charge rise from $162 to $350. The new figure is $250.
The effect of this is to increase rates by between 2 per cent and 7 per cent for houses with a capital value of between $200,000 and $500,000 unaffected by the property revaluations.
For $1 million-plus properties, the rates reduction will be about 1 per cent. The figures fluctuate more for houses above and below the average revaluation.
C&R leader David Hay said the ticket still believed it was better to collect a higher percentage of rates through the uniform charge, but was concerned about ratepayers' ability to adapt to a big rise in the present economic conditions.
Mr Hay said the new proposal for a $250 uniform annual general charge would go out for public consultation. There could be options for a higher and lower charge.
City Vision leader Richard Northey said the reduction in the charge was good, but not good enough because it would still lead to hefty rates rises for many low- and middle-income families.
Mr Banks said the council was committed to a $532 million capital programme this year - "a contribution to the recession to keep big projects in place and provide work opportunities".
