Manukau City rates jump blamed on councillors' egos

Barry Parkin believes many people in Manukau City are being charged too much because of where they live. Picture / Kenny Rodger

He is happy to pay rates for essential services, but Barry Parkin does not want to foot the bill for monuments erected to council "egos".

"What I see in Manukau City is a lot of waste. Grand projects," says the Pakuranga accountant and property owner.

"An organisation that sets about setting up little monuments to itself has got a problem."

His home is valued at an "alleged" $920,000, and his rates bill for this year is $2208 - an increase of more than a third on last year.

And he says he is not alone.

Mr Parkin believes elderly people - including some of his relatives - living in east Auckland on fixed incomes are being penalised for where they live, and could be forced off their land.

"Another $300 to $400 doesn't help when you are on a $20,000-a-year pension.

"I look around at my neighbours and there's a lot of grey hair, and I might be getting some myself soon."

His anger is fuelled by projects such as Sir Barry Curtis Park, a 92ha park the Manukau City Council is developing at Flatbush at a cost of $32 million over 10 years.

"It's hard to know what it is," he said. "I think it's just councils are running amok.

"They are setting up monuments to themselves, which is a sign of ego."

Mr Parkin, who owns several Auckland properties, believes it is unfair that ratepayers in what are seen as more affluent suburbs have to carry the cost of the council's social engineering.

He cites as an example, an "average" three-bedroom property he owns in Papatoetoe. The rates on that had dropped, from $1312 last year, to $973 this year. "I think council officers are being led by the nose by a couple of their officials."

Mr Parkin owns three houses in West Auckland, and has paid $1009 as the first quarterly rates instalment on those properties.

In February last year, the quarterly bill for his Waitakere properties was $783. By August, it had climbed to $869.

He believes council officials are considering rates as a tax, instead of a payment made for "services rendered". "When you get to the stage when one household is paying twice the rate of another, that doesn't work."


Most rates will be steady, says Curtis

Manukau City Council estimates rates will rise by an average of 5.9 per cent.

Mayor Sir Barry Curtis has said previously it is one of the lowest of any local authority.

However, he has said some ratepayers would pay more than that, while others would pay less, depending on the "movement" of their property value.

Individual councils did not set the way rates were struck, and Manukau had heard "considerable public input", he said.

Rates increases would average about 5.9 per cent, with 85 per cent of Manukau residents paying "similar amounts to last year".

Figures published in the Herald this year show Manukau City Council's earnings from rates rose 72 per cent in the past decade, to $196.8 million this year.

At the same time, the number of ratepayers climbed 22 per cent to 99,165.