2865 days ago

Unacceptable Rates Increase

Geoff from Hamilton East

I believe the rates increases proposed are too excessive.

According to your own rates department 80% of people will pay more for their rates. The remaining 20% with no increase will either be empty land or land with very low value buildings.

The average rates increase for the first year will be 9.5% but for many the rate increase will be much higher.

You imply that the real increases under the capital value rating scheme will affect new houses or those properties with larger buildings when this is not the case.

I have an old state house in Hamilton East which is only 80 square meters yet my rates will increase by 15% next year. With another 9.5% added in the second year that’s 25% in two years.
This is unacceptable.

Council needs to come back to the public with an option that allows for a 3.8% increase. This will mean stopping projects such as buying property on Victoria street etc.
The huge rates increase is because of these pet projects not because we don’t have enough to pay
for our essential services.

Let the public decide. It is their money. Make your submission against the 10 year plan.

More messages from your neighbours
21 hours ago

Mayor’s use of poo emoji costs ratepayers over $4k

Libby Totton Reporter from Waikato Times

South Waikato mayor Gary Petley will make a public apology, and has sworn off social media after admitting he got it wrong when an online dispute turned sour.

A code of conduct complaint was made by Putāruru ward councillor Zed Latinovic in January after Petley reacted to comments made about council expenditure on Facebook by using the ‘poo emoji’.

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2 days ago

🧩😏 Riddle me this, Neighbours…

The Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?

Do you think you know the answer?

Want to stop seeing these in your newsfeed? No worries! Simply head here and click once on the Following button.

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3 days ago

Some Choice News!

Kia pai from Sharing the Good Stuff

DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.

Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.

For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.

Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?

We hope this brings a smile!

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