A Local Democracy Reporting story about rates rises to commercial properties on Wednesday has split views in the Whakatāne district.
In the story published by 1News, retired businessman Clive Wickham claimed he wouldn’t look to invest anymore in the area after his bill soared.
That prompted cries of “why should we care about this wealthy boomer’s rates increases” and led to comparisons with 57% rates rises some people in other parts of the country have seen.
Some pointed out that the article failed to mention fluctuations in rates across previous years which had been favourable toward commercial property owners.
Central to Wickham’s complaint was that he had just received his rates bill which showed one of his commercial properties rates rising from from $14,858 last financial year to $18,652.
But in the previous year, following steady increases, his rates had dropped from $17,509.
Wickham told Local Democracy Reporting that the drop had led him to believe that the council had recognised the value of its commercial buildings and its business tenants to the town.
“However, not so, as we know this year they have come back with a vengeance. So my question is, how is a tenant supposed to plan or budget for all of this?”
Variations in percentages of rates rises across the district are due to differential settings adjusted each year. These reflect a number of things such as whether a property is residential, commercial, industrial of farming and horticulture.
Wickham said that not only had rates rises across the district been high this year, but that these differentials had been adjusted to be unfavourable to commercial properties.
He stated that an increase in rates for commercial properties of as much as 25.5%, which is higher than the 15% average rates rise across all rating units, would be a further blow to already struggling businesses in the town as rates bills are passed on to their operating costs.
He also has concerns about the council’s indications of average rates rises of 12.7% next year and 9.4% the year after and was unrepentant about his complaints.
“I love Whakatane and I don’t want to bag it,” Wickham said. “But, really, the council’s got to get it’s house in order.”
“Basically they gave with one hand but took away with a vengeance from another.”
The council told LDR that the variation in Wickham’s rates was due to capital value fluctuations.
Whakatāne District Council acting chief executive David Bewley yesterday pointed out the council adopted its Long Term Plan 2024-34 with an average rates increase of 15%.
“You will note in an article published by 1News that this reflects the average rates increase for New Zealand councils in the current planning cycle,” Bewley said.
When voting on the councils’ long-term plan last month, Whakatāne Mayor Victor Luca and councillors Andrew Iles and Gavin Dennis said they were against the high rates rises.
The mayor said the 15% average rates rise in Whakatāne was about the national average and there would always be higher and lower percentages around that rate, Luca said.
“I consistently advocated for the lowest rates I could get.
“I know the ratepayers aren’t an endless pot of money.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
