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

The second instalment of your rates bill was due this Friday. To many, it comes as no surprise that the February 2020 invoice is higher than last year; 3.99 per cent higher, in fact, or nearly three times the rate of inflation.

Do you feel like you have much say over how your annual rates figure is determined? In many ways, we've just had an enormous say through an election four months ago. However, many candidates don't clearly communicate their views on the next three years of Council budgets they'll be responsible for.

Instead of just ‘going out for consultation', what if we gave you a vote on next year's budget too? In the UK, councils are required to have a binding referendum if they're proposing a tax increase over 5 per cent.

Can we have a referendum on next year's rates in Tauranga? The short answer is ‘yes' but we don't have the power to make it binding.

We could amend our referendum policy to require a referendum whenever Council proposes an increase higher than, say, inflation plus 2 per cent. If the Mayor and Councillors of the day wanted to rate higher, they'd have to make their case more clearly than has been done in the past to ensure community support. Ignoring and voting against a referendum result would risk the wrath of the public. What's your view? Real community empowerment or asking the community to do the Mayor and Councillors jobs for them?