Banks and Bull go into rating battle with letters as ammunition

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Auckland Regional Council chairwoman Gwen Bull are firing potshots at each other as the rates revolt enters a third week.

This follows a meeting of 600 people organised by the Orewa Ratepayers Association on Saturday that called on Mrs Bull and the six other councillors who pushed through the rating system to resign, and for the ARC to reset the rates.

Mr Banks yesterday released an exchange of letters with Mrs Bull last November and called on the ARC to be stripped of its transport responsibilities.

Mrs Bull responded by saying Mr Banks was trying to divert attention from Auckland City's rates rises, which start to hit letterboxes on Saturday.

"Ours are going to pale into insignificance by the time they get their local council rates," Mrs Bull said.

In the correspondence, Mr Banks raised the issue of the distributional impacts of the ARC rates and suggested politicians and officials from the various councils work together with the ARC so that "the implications of any decisions are fully understood by all parties".

Mrs Bull rejected the offer, saying the ARC had taken the best advice available and had an enormous amount of dialogue with rating specialists at all the councils.

"When the time comes to make the decisions, that responsibility is ours," Mrs Bull said in a letter to Mr Banks on November 13.

Mr Banks yesterday said council officials were screaming there would be huge problems to ratepayers on the horizon.

Mrs Bull was "lost" when the council tried to explain the magnitude of the changes.

"Now she finds herself in a deep bunker situation ... [from] which she can't extricate herself.

"Worse than that there will be another vicious body blow to the ratepayers of Greater Auckland this time next year," Mr Banks said.

He said the ARC should be wound down to an environmental body and have its transport responsibilities replaced by a Greater Auckland transport board.

Mrs Bull hit back, saying the ARC had widely consulted council officials over the rates and correspondence - not released by Mr Banks - would back that up.

Auckland City councillor and City Vision leader Dr Bruce Hucker last night said ratepayers faced a double whammy from two councils largely controlled by Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now.

Dr Hucker said the decision by the ARC to ignore a differential for business and the increase by Mr Banks and his allies in the annual charge for rubbish - along with introducing a $150 uniform annual charge - would hurt poorer people the most.

"Mr Banks should remember that pointing the finger at the ARC on rates there are two fingers pointing back at him," Dr Hucker said.

The Auckland City Council is increasing rates by 2.5 per cent but rating changes mean the 31,000 poorest households will pay about 16 per cent more, and the richest homeowners will get a slight decrease.

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