Local bodies may be reorganised

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33193, 5 April 1973, Page 2

Local bodies may be reorganised

.\rtr Zealand Press Association

ROTORUA, April 4. There must be substantial reorganisation of territorial local government before any new or additional source of revenue could be considered, the Minister of Local Government (Mr May) said today.

In a speech prepared for delivery to the ' Municipal Association. Mr May said the Govern- , ment was under no illusion about the difficul- 1 ties of local government 1 finance. “If the Government’s aim [ of satisfactory rate stabilisation polic ? is to be achieved, we must have the right structure of local government, and the right allocation of func-J tions.” he said. “I feel, too, that before any new or additional source of finance can be made available we should perhaps have a good, hard look at areas of expenditure within local government, because I am satisfied that there are some that need to be examined.” KrjMtrt expected Mr May said that the committee examining local government finance should report to him very soon. “1 will be most surprised if the

committee can suggest any practical and equitable solution which can be applied without fairly drastic reorganisation.” On rating and valuation. Mr May said he was convinced that the majority of ratepayers favoured a uniform system. Basis of rating "The more I look at this situation, the more 1 feel that there should be one universal rating base, and that should be land value,” he said Land value rating did not penalise the ratepayer who wished to provide accommodation for an aged or infirm relative by adding an extra room to the house, nor the house owner who built a garage to get his car off the road. The Government wished to encourage such progressive moves. Mr May said most local authorities which used the annual-value rating system maintained their own valuation staffs, and this duplicated the Valuer-General's work. In these days of increasing rate demands it was quite intolerable to ratepayers that local authorities should duplicate the work of a Government department in this way. Mr May expressed concern that most property values were revised only every five years "With the development that is going on today, and the increasing effect town planning is having on values, an effort should be made to revise valuation rolls more frequently,” he said. Valuation plan* He had asked the ValuerGeneral to investigate the possibility of revising valuation rolls every two years, perhaps through the use of a computer. Mr May criticised the lack of progress local government had made in the last 13 years "It is an indictment of all of us that we have been unable to make better progress than we have.” he said. In 1960 the Local Bills Committee of Parliament had

recommended reform and re- ’ gional authorities, but successive Governments had made littk attempt to implement ; the major findings. Mr May said he intended to move immediately along the general lines recommended by the committee. The Local Government . Commission would be strengthened, and authorised to set up regional authorities. Mr May said he believed the reason for the slow progress had been very largely the attitude of many people in local government itself. “Lip service” "With one or two notable exceptions, the history of successive Local Government Commissions is a record of lip service being paid by many in local government to the desirability of local government rationalisation — for the other fellow, not for me,” he added. "We have even reached the stage where some local authorities, for reasons of

their own, have adopted the line of not objecting in any way to commission schemes at public hearings, and of later endeavouring to stultify the work of the commission by other means.” Regional government did not mean the wholesale abolition of municipalities; and counties. Mr May said. “What it does mean is that we will eventually have. 1 hope, a system of local government which provides for regional administration of| those matters which clearly] call for this type of approach with constituent bodies, reorganised and maybe in some cases smaller than they are now, retained for the purpose of dealing with what are essentially local affairs.” Poll provision Mr May said the right to a poll on Local Government Commission proposals would be retained, but he hoped to remove the undue weighting against change which existed at present.