Inside City Council A personal view, by Councillor Andrew Hollis

OK...where to start?

When I campaigned I campaigned on low or even no rates increases.

News last week suggests that Tauranga City cannot complete planned capital programs and wants to increase rates as much as 40 per cent over the next three years. Even higher if some councillors get their way.

Add to that a compulsory waste cost of $400 (or more?). There has even been talk of a yearly increase of 20 per cent – that's right 20 per cent per year.

Words like ‘courage' and ‘bravery' are being thrown around as if to make it seem that taking the easy option is the moral one.

Increasing rates is not courageous. Courage in this instance is to find out where the spending leaks are and solve the issue.

Rebuild the capital program based on sensible financial skill, not as a petulant teenager asking an over indulgent parent for more money, money that is earmarked for rent and food.

I for one think that continually increasing residential rates will not and cannot solve this issue.

First principles must occur. Zero based budgets and cancelling ALL capital spends until control is back on spending.

Projects like the Mount Base track, Phoenix Park, Durham St and the Harrington St carpark or Waiari water cannot be allowed to happen again.

We have $100 million to spend on expensive cycleways, expensive CBD upgrades, historic projects that need to be paid for, enormous roading projects that need to pause or to be centrally funded. There are as many as 70 "nice-to-have" projects that will likely need to be stopped.

It turns out as well, that growth does not pay for growth - not even close.
Be careful Tauranga it looks as though the council big spenders are after your money.