Minister’s figures ‘amaze’ delegates

Press, 9 April 1981, Page 6

Minister’s figures ‘amaze’ delegates

;.An assertion that the Government had given $122 mil* to local authorities in subsidies and grants last year has amazed delegates &£the jVlunicipal Association conference in Christchurch. was a'.. olutely amazed at2.these figures,” said the Mayor •of Auckland (Mr (HM. Kay) yesterdaq. figures will be disdtfSsed by the association’s executive, but this will not <kop Auckland from pursuing a revenue-sharing scheme for local goverijjsnJ," he said. •-The figures were collated K officers of the Minister fLocal Government (Mr Sfi|het) for presentation to the conference. ~Mr Kay' was concerned abput what he called the Minister’s ignorance of the amount of money being 4ppnt: “Why wait until just before the conference to get <<tundown? He should have Known these figures before,” Im-said. r• Mr Highet told delegates that even he was “more than a little surprised” at the figures. ’“He said that Government contributions to local government coffers amounted to about 6 per cent of personal income in New Zealand.

The figure which had been mooted by the association’s members as a basis for revenue sharing was 2 per cent of such income, he se : <

“Local government would certainly be in a parlous state in this country if the taxpayers’ contribution was restricted to 2 per cent," Mr Highet said. ■ • 'the Deputy. Mayor of Christchurch (Mar Rex Les-: ter) said, “The figures the Minister gave us were somewhat confusing.” He said the Minister had included $l5 million of tax rebates to ratepayers as part of the $122 million to local authorities. Mr Lester also questioned the validity of including $7 million of rates rebates as part of the :’igure of $122 million. Mr Highet had said total grants and subsidies from Government appropriations and the National Roads Board amounted to $284 million.. Mr Lester said that National Roads Board . nts, some of which had nothing to do with local government, had been included in this figure. The Mayor of Lower Hutt (Mr J. Kennedy-Good) said it was unfair to include $3O million from the Government in grants in lieu of rates in a total figure of Government a”, to local bodies. Those grants were really payments for services done by local authorities, and they should be more like $6O million a year, he said. Mr Highet said he person-

ally believed the Government should pay more in grants in lieu of nates, and agreed the figure should have been taken out of his first calculation. Christchurch would be better off if revenue-sharing was adopted, according to a Christchurch delegate, Cr Vicki Buck. . , She believed the council would get $l4 million from the Government in a reve-nue-sharing scheme. Cr Buck said that' local government was getting less and less help from the Government, because of less income from rates and petrol tax rebates. The Mayor of Dunedin (Mr C, G. Skeggs) said his city had a real problem with finance, and the council should be receiving more help from the Government. He favoured a percentage of personal income tax being allocated to local authorities, “as is applicable in other countries.” The present method of financing was an unfair burden to ratepayt-s and was not paying for Dunedin’s “operations,” Mr Skeggs said. The association’s chairman, Mr A. F. Thomas, ruled out discussion on the Minister’s figures during a question and answer session yesterday. Delegates told “The Press” that the figures would be discussed at a meeting of the association’s executive.