Mike Hosking: Paying rates based on the value of our house is insane

The award for common sense comment of the weekend goes to Michael Barnett, of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

He argues the rating system, the way councils strike rates, is dumb, and he is 100% right.

Today, the website at the Auckland Council will crash as thousands of people log on to find out how rich they've got with the new valuations.

This proves, apart from anything else, we are obsessed with property.

We cannot talk about it enough, cannot look at enough houses, guess enough values, speculate enough on growth and bubbles and mortgage rates and borrowing.

I note Phil Twyford, newly minted housing minister, is handing out financial advice in typical limousine left fashion: Don't think you've hit the jackpot - just because your house has gone in value from $800,000 to $1.2 million doesn't mean you want to borrow any money. Thank you Uncle Phil, none of us had a clue how to run our lives until you rolled into town.

But anyway, back to Barnett and rates.

The concept that we pay rates based on the value of our house is, of course, insane.

No one knows this better than those on fixed incomes. Through no fault or doing of their own, your income has gone no where fast, but your house has. And because your house has, the bill goes up.

Does the service provided change? No.

Is the service you get from the council different if you have a more expensive house than your neighbour? No.

Is the service in any way shape or form individualised to your needs based on the value of your house? No.

So how do they justify it? This of course is not a new argument, but it's a good one and good ones are always worth peddling. The reason they do it this way is because they can raid your pocket on a false premise.

By pretending, or at least ignoring, the absurdity, they can simply claim there's nothing they can do, given house prices are beyond their control. Because if they ran it like another bill, they'd have to justify their existence. They'd have to quantify the service versus the cost.

In other words, they'd have to operate like any other business does. That is not going to happen, because the moment it does, they'd go broke - you only have to look at Auckland Council's total PR bill to know what a joke of an operation it is.

So councils rob us on a false and fraudulent equation - and those who can least afford it get fleeced the worst.

It's little short of a miracle this has been allowed to continue the way it has. Presumably, showing a fool and their money are easily parted. So the question is, why are we the fools?