Andrew Dickens: We don’t need rate caps, we need smarter councils

So the Local Government Conference is underway and the Government took advantage of it to talk down to councils like a stepdad telling off their stepson.  They’ve been told to reign in wasteful spending to keep their rates increase down. It'd be good if the government that is currently spending more than any other ever practiced what they preached.  But anyway, the Government is talking about bringing in rate caps.   Sounds good. A simple idea we can all understand, but will it work?  The fact is the idea is in place in Australia. Melbourne and Sydney have them, but individual councils can apply for exemptions. And in Melbourne it means that some councils have imposed 10% rates.   But they don’t have them in Brisbane, and Brisbane has the lowest rate increases in Australia.   So why is that? Successive councils have kept the debt low. They’ve had smart long term plans with cross-party support.   They have a suburbs first policy so that improvements are made where people actually live. 85% of their budget is spent on this - it’s also cheaper than grand projects.   And they like public transport.  A record $210 million is being spent on it, which is a lot cheaper than building roads, roads, roads. Here public transport and alternative transport options are the first to be cut in hard times.   And because of their resident friendly, suburban centric approach combined with fiscal prudence, they have some wriggle room.  Senior citizens in Brisbane get the most generous rebates in the country, cutting their rates in half.   And it means that Brisbane can pursue some big stuff like the Olympics. But there they show some balls as well, canning the re-development of the Gabba because the business case didn’t measure up.  Rates caps are good slogan policy.  It sounds like a simple answer to a complex situation, but they didn’t work in Sydney and Melbourne.  In fact there they’re suffering from rates catch up. If you defer projects then eventually someone is going to pay for them.   Whanganui will find that out in the future. Work on the Opera House has been deferred, saving $8 million, but that work hasn’t gone away and will cost more in the future.  The reason we’re in the hole we’re in is false promises of rate cuts by previous councils that resulted in a rates catch up.   Wellington’s water sound familiar.  We don’t need rates caps, what we really need is sensible long term fiscally prudent governance. Look for that next election. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.