Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

The Taxpayers Union have released their 2019 report ranking councils by rates, debt, and staff costs. How do Tauranga City Council's results compare?

Tauranga's rates affordability relative to the nation's other 12 cities has improved. We've slipped from having the fourth highest average residential rates, with Auckland, Porirua, and Nelson more expensive, to fifth - now behind Wellington.

There are a couple of reasons for this, Wellington had a left-leaning council so it was inevitable that taxation would grow faster than Tauranga. Secondly, the appointment of Cr John Robson at the 2018 by-election ensured there were enough votes around the council table to have a cap on residential rates.

As mentioned last week, the results of the 2019 election appear to have delivered a slight majority to the more financially restrained; with Cr Kelvin Clout notably promising during the campaign to cap residential rates at inflation plus two per cent.

We are 4^th out of 13 city councils in terms of debt per household but we compare very favourably to our peers at 10^th out of 13 in staff costs per household.

Our neighbours, the Western BOP District Council, are no longer the highest rating council in the country with Auckland taking that ‘honour' but it should be noted that both Auckland and Nelson councils are ‘unitary authorities' meaning they are both a regional and city council.

*Unitary council

Source: NZ Taxpayers Union