Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

Poor old Nick Smith, Minister for Local Government, has been having a rough week.

In fact, as I was writing this I heard he had resigned and now Gerry Brownlee is the new minister. Reputedly he has no time for Local Government. Oh joy!

Part of it was the sanitising and watering down of his initial ‘reform' proposals for Local Government. In a media statement from Prime Minster John Key titled ‘Better Local Government' it outlined stronger governance, improved efficiency and more responsible financial management for councils.

There will be eight specific initiatives, the first four to be passed in September. The difference from the initial statements made are that now ex-Minister Smith was holding hands with Local Government and its president, Lawrence Yule.
There were five meetings scheduled and one of these was to be in Tauranga on Thursday to which only mayors and chief executives were invited. Gone, seemingly, are the four actions of the 2002 Labour Party wellbeings (‘reforms') of Social, Economic, Cultural and Environmental issues to drive councils' policies and strategies and consequently rates increases.

Plus, hopefully, that absolute nonsense of giving councils ‘the power of general competence'. What an anathema in terms that statement was and has proved to be. V8 Supercars in Hamilton is an example, but there are plenty more. I have always advocated priority spending on core services, infrastructure as a priority and hopefully that's where this new direction will take us.

As an example locally, Baywave was built as a priority over the likes of the City Stormwater system. Baywave was/is a ‘nice to have'. Our stormwater system is a ‘must have' – as we found out on May 18, 2005 with subsequent disastrous flooding and slips. Some 42 houses lost. Mount Industrial businesses still flooding after that. The proof of the pudding etcetera will be in what gets decreed as core business. Already, a case is being made for the status quo nationally. Merging most council's won't resolve anything without specific direction about what core services are.

Equally urgent is a review by government of an unsustainable rating system at least as far as the general rate goes. My bet is they won't go near this one. Rates are the only tax with a guaranteed payment security. Put simply, pay up or they can sell you up. So I'm all for meaningful reform, provided that it reduces ratepayers liabilities (councils don't have many assets – assets can be sold!) and meaningful savings can be demonstrated before the event.
We've had too many promises during the years that promised light at the end of the tunnel, and turned out to be the lantern on the guards van going the other way. Electricity reforms for example. Certainly if the present system of rates based on property valuation continue, then plans to level out Auckland's rates increases to a 10 per cent maximum will not be able to be implemented without radical change.

At full council a proposal from the Mauao Trust to support formation of a board to undertake Joint Administration of Mauao was passed. There will be four board members nominated from iwi and four board members from TCC. Public access is guaranteed and we are assured it will be business as usual. Issues about minor commercial activities that currently go on are to be considered. The Art Gallery draft Statement of Intent was presented to council. They say they are having trouble balancing the budget (welcome to the club) and the accounts presented show an ongoing and increasing deficit. They told elected members that all the cost cutting that could be done had been done. They were endeavouring to procure more income, but the proportion of contribution from ratepayers was dropping due to council not giving an annual CPI increase. I asked for a breakdown of one line item headed – ‘Other operational costs – $711,241' which encapsulated 61 per cent of their expenditure. They are to email the detail. At least, while being short on detail, their accounts were well presented an easily understood.

Talking about easily understood accounts, I received an email about the item last week about TCAL and TCVL accounts. These accounts are done to a format required by Audit NZ and the companies had done exactly what the law required. The point I was making was that the average ratepayer would not have easily obtained a clear picture of the real state of financial affair from them.

Water tariffs and potential/possible increases in costs for the three year/10 year plan will have many options presented. Unfortunately, they won't be detailed in the plan. Tony Christiansen produced much laughter when he suggested we should privatise our water supply. David Stewart suggested he campaign for the next election on that one. To be fair, Tony was tongue in cheek. As I said last week, it won't surprise me if central government doesn't make a play for water supplies. Like last time, I will fight this all the way. The taxation possibilities for central government would be like a lotto win for them – at our expense and no benefit to us.

At a field visit to the new Waiari Water Plant site, the committee traversed the catchment area and saw the pristine area surrounding a pristine stream. Running down just the other side of Te Puke, this stream will supply water for the city's third water supply system currently programmed for 2021. It would have been required in 2005 were it not for the reduced consumption brought about by water metering. With more rewards and incentives in the water tariffs, it might be possible to delay construction further. We don't need another $100 million project if we can avoid it.
This week's mindbender from Winston Churchill – continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.