By Nigel Billings and Nick Clark Winter is upon us and Federated Farmers is in the thick of it fighting for hard-working farmers against the rates hordes. It’s a hard battle but one worth fighting. We’re staring down the barrel at a swarm of huge rates rises which will add thousands to many farmers’ rates […]
Rates
Hastings Council urged to push ‘paws’ on working dog fee hike
by Rhea Dasent Federated Farmers Regional Policy Advisor Federated Farmers opposes the Hastings working dog registration fee increasing from $48 to $56. While we are pleased that the cost of registering a working dog is heavily discounted compared to town dogs, $56 is still too expensive, especially when there is no discount for subsequent dogs […]
Rein in rates and show some backbone on water plan, ECan urged
Federated Farmers is strongly urging Environment Canterbury to demonstrate financial discipline and stick with current water plans developed with the community, rather than cave in and start a $25 million exercise re-writing them. Feds Mid-Canterbury President David Clark and fellow Ashburton farmer and national board member Chris Allen said the Federation’s Canterbury membership of around […]
Farmers seek fairer route to meeting road costs
by Rhea Dasent, Federated Farmers Senior Policy Advisor Federated Farmers members have highlighted to us a discrepancy between the high rates they pay towards roading, and the low level of service they receive. There is wide concern that their distance from main centres means their roads are low priority for maintenance and repair, yet they […]
Maintaining roads is key step to traffic safety
By Rhea Dasent, Federated Farmers Regional Policy Advisor Federated Farmers supports road safety as a priority in its submission on the Regional Land Transport Plan for Hawke’s Bay. Ensuring road maintenance is adequately funded and actually carried out will complement the safety strategy. Many rural councils are falling further behind in essential maintenance of roads, which shortens the lifetime of […]
Rural rates – going up faster than ciggies and booze
New Zealand’s 78 district, city, and regional councils have started consultations on Long Term Plans setting out proposed rates increases for the coming year and beyond. Expect cries of pain, says Federated Farmers manager of general policy, Nick Clark. “The high cost of council rates on farmland has always been a problem and it is […]
Gisborne Wairoa rates showdown
By Toby Williams President, Gisborne Wairoa Federated Farmers It’s frustrating and very disappointing that Federated Farmers’ submissions on Gisborne District Council and Wairoa District Council rates issues have largely fallen on deaf ears. We certainly highlighted the unfairness and inconsistency of some of their proposals, both in comprehensive written submissions and in person when I […]
Wairoa rates review misses the mark
By Rhea Dasent, senior policy advisor for Federated Farmers Federated Farmers has a long history of submitting on Wairoa rates, so our ears pricked up when we saw the current Wairoa Rates Review. We were especially interested to read in the Council’s own words “This proposal would simplify the rating system and transfer rates from […]
Hold on to your wallet – bumpy council rates ride ahead
By Nigel Billings, Federated Farmers Senior Policy Advisory With local authorities due to roll out their Long-Term financial Plans in early 2021, a hard road beckons for rural ratepayers. This isn’t just a Covid-19 thing. Some councils, particularly in tourism centres, took big hits on their revenue in 2020 but new demands on council coffers […]
Bleak picture ahead on rising rates demands
Federated Farmers has produced the 13th edition of our annual rates report newsletter. In it we provide detail on our local policy work on rates and local government funding along with coverage of the major developments impacting council funding and financing this year and, in the years to come. In the unprecedented times of early […]