Northern sympathy

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 375, 26 February 1991, Page 4

Northern sympathy

by

Robert

Miine

It seems the northern Ruapehu district councillors have the numbers to block a continuation of the differential rate for the Waimarino, and they are using that power. At the last council meeting they showed no sympathy whatsoever to the plight of the Waimarino. The arguments against a differential rate go along the lines of "we're one district now, we should all pay the same". But the problem is that Waimarino is paying more now for no more in services than it was before and so there is no present advantage from the amalgamation to the council's Waimarino customers. A differential rate system is used to balance anomalies in a valuation based rating system. If ever there Was an anomaly in a system it is here in the Waimarino where rural people are facing an increase of more than 24 per cent in rates, on top of a 20 per cent increase last year. Some northern councillors argued that Waimarino was too slow in picking up subsidised road works before the amalgamation. But even with subsidies it costs ratepayers to do such work. It seems the northern councillors are saying "you should have done what we did - spend up large on your roads, then join the amalgamation with the bank balance in the red." If that is the case, Waimarino is being penalised for having been financially responsible in the past. An argument from the north against spending more on Waimarino services is that their standard of service has dropped since the amalgamation. But then so has their rates input. It seems the Waimarino is making up some of the shortfall of $300,000-odd that Taumarunui lost when the rich Westgrn Shores of Taupo went East. Taumarunui is hurting because their services have been cut a little, but without the Waimarino 's input to cover the Western Shores loss, the service cuts would have to be even greater. It will be interesting to hear the arguments against this point. A suggestion around the problem has been that if the council sticks to its district-wide general rate, that at least the extra money collected in the Waimarino is spent in the Waimarino, particularly on roads. But even this idea has been shunned. The only way out of this logic which stacks up so much against helping the Waimarino, is that the northern councillors want to be rid of the Waimarino as quickly as possible and are forcing the issue. As the council is working right now on this year's budget and rates setting, now is the time to make your views known. We invite you to write to the Bulletin (keep it brief please) so that a good exchange of views is had before it is too late to change the rating system, if that is in fact what we need. If you don't make your views known now you will have a much less chance of having them taken into account later. Telecomortopoly Businesses are being stung by Telecom next month with the thin edge of the charging-for-local-calls wedge. Sure, a small reduction in rentals will offset some of the pain, about 10 minutes of local calls a day worth of pain. Isn't it time Telecom realised that the rest of the country could use a financial break - especially considering the massive profits Telecom rakes in each year? There has to be some way to control this telecommunications monopoly. With any other business, if you don't get the answers you want you can go somewhere else but choosing not to use the telephone in today's business world is like choosing not to eat. One more gripe about Telecom, when are they going to drop the irritating idea of putting the Telephone Directory's Yellow Pages upside down? Probably when enough of us complain about it. Our view This column is our view at the Bulletin. If your view is worth sharing, write to "Letters", Ruapehu Bulletin, Box 122 Ohakune.