Wellington is a bosket case. The combined regional, city and water rates for the average household is just under $5,300 this year.... and next year, just the WCC rates section is going to rise by over 16% ($452.00 PA). Their spending on cycleways and public transport is out of control while households are paying over twice the amount on average each year for their water compared to Auckland because of all the leaks in the system.... Wellington Water's own figures show that to the year to June, they lost 40% of all the water in their supply pipes due to leaks. Contrast that to Auckland where Watercare says they lose 13.4% due to leaks.
Another comparison to Auckland, their combined average rates and water bill per household $1,000 cheaper than Wellington and the average rates increase next year in Auckland will be 6.8% compared to 16% for Wellington ratepayers.
And another comparison... the average non-residential rates bill in Auckland last year was just over $9,000.... Wellington's was over $32,000.
It was decided to earthquake proof the central library at a cost of three times the price to demolish the existing and build a new one.
The budget for the Wellington Town Hall rebuild/strengthening has blown out from $150 mil to $330 mil in October last year.... rumours within the construction industry are that it's now close to $500 million.
Here's an idea..... spend money not on vanity projects but on getting the existing infrastructure right and then move on to new infrastructure and then, if there's any money left over, get on with the vanity projects.
Wellington Council has turned itself into a classic example for ACT of why taking more and more money from ratepayers and then not being accountable for it leads to bad governance. People will say the government is wrong in bringing in an observer but, unfortunately, Wellington City Council has brought this on themselves. And BTW, the government are, for once, following the advice of officials, and bringing in the observer.
www.rnz.co.nz
