Source: Taxpayers Union
30 JUNE 2020FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Taxpayers’ Union has released the results of its public consultation on the Christchurch City Council’s revised draft annual budget – with just two percent of Christchurch locals backing the Council’s proposals to increase rates. “This result is an overwhelming endorsement of those councillors who are championing a rates freeze in the garden city,” says Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union. “Of the 1,371 people who submitted to the Council via our Christchurch rates consultation website, more than two thirds explicitly backed the rates freeze policy. Seventeen percent backed rates being slashed by five percent, and eleven percent opted for a modest rates decrease of two and a half percent. Just two percent backed the Council’s proposed rate increases.” “The Council has a month to finalise this year’s budget. They tried to screw the scrum by limiting the options in the official consultation material to a range of rate increases. Now we know why. Christchurch residents are united – cut the waste and the ‘nice to haves’ and don’t hike council taxes during a recession.” Editor’s note: breakdown of submissions submitted to the Council using www.chchrates.nz website:
Rates option
Submissions
Percentage
-5% (rate decrease)
237
17.3%
-2.5 (rate decrease)
150
10.9%
0 (rates freeze)
921
67.2%
+3.5 (one of the Council’s preferred options)
16
1.2%
+4.65 (one of the Council’s preferred options)
4
0.3%
+5.5 (one of the Council’s preferred options)
9
0.7%
Other
34
2.5%
Total
1371
