Federated Farmers Submission on the Westland District Council's Rating Review in 2014
We largely support Council’s preferred option, including the proposal to change the basis for the general rate to capital value, to reduce the number of differential categories, and in particular we support the proposal to allocate 30 percent of rates through a Uniform Annual General Charge.
However, it is important that Council recognise that neither the current Rating Review process nor the decisions to allocate a greater proportion of the general rate to rural categories have been based on a robust assessment of the relative benefit received from each Council activity.
Comparatively, the existing funding policy did incorporate a robust assessment of relative benefit, hence the very particular (complex) use of rating differential categories.
Figure 10 of Council’s consultation document indicates that approximately 1,000 rural ratepayers are facing a rates increase of $200 or more, with some facing increases of nearly $1,000, on top of the already significant and cumulative increases these farmers have faced since 2012.
Federated Farmers believes Council could accomplish its aims by reducing the complexity and addressing some clear inequities resulting from the current funding policy, as proposed, while also retaining the considered allocation of costs to specific ratepayer groups under the existing funding policy.
This would require Council to adopt the new rating policy as proposed, but to set the differentials for each of the categories at a level which reflects the relative allocation of costs to the various ratepayer categories as they stood at 2012/13, prior to Council’s decision to allocate a greater proportion of costs to the rural sector.