How much of this is the result of the Local Government Act and the way funds have to be gathered and spent? You have to specify your spending 10 years in advance [LTCCP or 10 year plan], yet may not be able to gather revenue, i.e. development contributions for up to 8 years, i.e. 5 years for Section 223 and 3 years for Section 224's. Except you may have spent the money to provide for the new development, yet a financial crisis may turn up part way through, finance companies go bung and developments are not finished...... and then you end up not gathering the money, end result, borrowings, and cost of borrowings go up.

Bernard, it would be interesting to look into this as a seperate topic as I suspect that the majority of the Territorial Authorities will be suffering from this and will hamstring local government for a few years to come.

Seen their fleet cars - all nice big SUVs and lots of overseas trip. Free money - why not????

the guys up this way drive daewoo's............poor buggers!!!! haha

Rates need capping, English should have moved by now. Whats the holdup?

Lets cut the claptrap Wellington City Council have some of the best vehicles available anywhere in NZ ,CHECK THEM OUT JAMMAN,they are so self righteous ,i still think the Ghost of Helen is alive and well in the WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL.

Jamman - vehicle types are irrelevant. The fact is that Councils have increased their employee numbers by thousands in the last 5-7 years. They have also become involved in all manner of things where they have no place to be involved. It is all part of a big government disease that is slowly eating away at us like a cancer. Along with other declining western societies, government is well on the way to making up half or more of GDP - it's an outrage and is completely unsustainable. Most of these people (nothing against them) are various admin and regulatory paper shufflers, pure and simple. Coupled with the fact that half the population is on welfare, it's not hard to see signs of Rome's decline in the coming decades. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see the fuse was lit a long time ago. Funny thing is that most people don't value their liberty any more...they're happy to sell that off to be welfare slaves to the state. I guess we all get what we deserve in the end.

Seasonally adjusted figures also show employee costs rose 3.8% over the quarter, while unadjusted figures show these costs were up 9.4% to NZ$410.9 million from June 2008.

Employee costs up 9.4% for the year! I presume that includes elected officials.

It is not a case of the recession is over - local authorities never had a recession.

There was an interesting argument locally amongst elected councillors - the majority feeling it was unreasonable to expect a CEO to be made responsible for cutting costs.

But Hang on, Ludwig! What would the "..various admin and regulatory paper shufflers.." be doing otherwise? - Join "..half the population is on welfare.."?

Example: Japanese office blocks regulaly used to have a person to call for the lift; one inside to call the floor and one at the top to call for the lift down. Now they're all automatic; peopleless - and their unemployment rate has syrocketed. Same with NZ Rail yonks ago.
So isn't "...various admin and regulatory paper shuffling.." better than no job and no pride?

Agree with gingerbreadman. Just look around the big councils around Auckland. I can tell you in their fleet car park, there are number of Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi SUVs (most are top of the range), Holden SV6, Falcon FG-6E (more expensive than XR6s). This is just an example the way council is spending their money - there is no accountability.. I meet a guy in London once who worked for a local council. He was there to check out the local music scene, flying business class of course.

Guys - Chill out

The nation is desperate for growth industries.

Used to be central government was the driver of growth.

Now we are really cooking with gas !

Kate, I think you mean that they are the last man standing and an easy target.

Developer go bankrupt and then pass their problems on, or get bailed out. Builders hide/change names etc and Hardies find any technical reason why their product failed, i.e. you only put in 9 nails as opposed to 10 as per spec sheet page 97 clause 136a

Mayor BOB , in Chch , needs all that dosh to bail out failed property developers , and to build theme parks on crime scenes . We're gonna rival Disney -Land , given the amount of criminal activities out here . And those of us in the rarified atmosphere of Rangiora , need donate copious quantities of our pesos to the Waimakiriri D. Council for their ongoing programme to create " S " bends in all straight roads , round-abouts no one needs , and raised pedestrian crossings where no one dares to tread . ......... . Something hallucinagenic in the water methinks .

I that new McDonald's open yet, Roger? Must be some good rates on that site......

This month .......... Helluva spot to locate it . Enough near misses there , without the added " attraction " of McD's to spoil your focus !

Councils have to factor inflation in their budgets. Gore DC in its LTCCP 2009-2019 used the BERYL forecasts of price level changes to calculate the inflation rate for each year of the plan. The rate differs slightly for each core activity within the following ranges:

Year 1. 2.1% - 3.8%
Year 2. 2.3% - 3.3%
Year 3. 2.3% - 2.9%
Year 4. 2.4% - 3.0%
Year 5. 2.1% - 3.3%
Year 6. 2.2% - 3.3%
Year 7. 2.3% - 3.5%
Year 8. 2.3% - 3.3%
Year 9. 2.4% - 3.4%
Year 10 2.2% - 3.5%

Even though they have to factor inflation in their budgets it does not mean that a small rate increase or even a rate cut hasn't had inflation factored in.

For example if a farmer, one year budgets for 12 cases of roundup (one for each month) at $100.00 each, then his budget for that year for roundup is $1,200. For the following year if the farmer believes he needs to cut costs due to a difficult trading environment, he may reduce the cases to 6 and use a case once every 2 months. He may factor in a 3% increase in price and so in his budget he has 6 cases x $103 = $618. Overall he will have reduced his budget substantially but still factored in inflation.

Do Councils review their spending using this method? I doubt it.

PeterR. "There was an interesting argument locally amongst elected councillors - the majority feeling it was unreasonable to expect a CEO to be made responsible for cutting costs."

God help us.

The CEO is the principal administrative officer of the local authority. Councillors when employing the CEO choose to give the CEO the power to employ and negiotiate the terms of employment of his staff. Councillors usually do not have a say.

To all elected members, harden up and do your job.

Mark, I asked the Gore DC this question when I presented my submission in May.

" What happens to the Building Control department when the recession / depression hits Gore, will user pays be able to fund the service?"

I received this answer three months later from the Mayor, (not the Chief Executive).

"The Council has not given any consideration to when the recession / depression hits Gore and the impact on the Building Control Department. To date the Department has proved to be quite resilient in regard to the international recission."

The Mayor also stated that Gore DC "has never had an accurate or even rough estimation of what the building accreditation costs would be.

The parasites have their heads buried in the sand.

Long Term Community Plans are a nonsense and a huge waste of resources.

Hey Mark, ever applied for a Building Consent since the building accreditation came through the Councils? I am currently trying to get a small domestic extension including 1 bedroom, ensuite and deck over and I can not even get the consent accepted. Between the architect which is getting paid more than the Council workers [even the CEO maybe] and the builder who charges like a wounded bull, you think that they would be able to provide the simple informaiton asked for? We have not even had the rest of the industry go through the accreditation yet as it was deemed to be easiest to get the Councils sorted. Will not even be able to find a builder that will be able to pass, let alone get graded at a level where they can do anything more than erect an Ikea bookcase. Heaven help the suppliers......but I imagine Hardies will get their products through that somehow as well.

Now why are we all paying for this? Because we all whinged to the government when we got a few leaky homes and instead of saying tough, we got yet another layer of beaucracy that the local councils have to apply, yet the ones that are making them do it are sitting back and laughing.

I heard that four building inspectors at our local council walked out the door in the middle of a recession, in the middle of a building slump even. Who in their right mind would do that? Surely that must point to some real stresses in the system when people give up these cushy numbers driving their flash cars for large salaries to go home and sit on their bottoms.

I fail to see how people think that other people go to work with any other intention other than trying to do a good job. There is always this perception that everyone is out to screw everyone else....or am I the one in lala-land and that is actually what people do?

Anyone tried to get a council to approve some container homes yet. Should be funny to see the twists and turns as they try to avoid having them in 'their' shire. Gotta be good to go if the prisoners are getting them.

Paul it's not "a few" leaky homes - its tens of thousands if not more than 100,000 and the Councils are the "last man standing" with regards to compensation. The bulk of the leakys are in Auckland region so makes you wonder if the supercity plan is a way for previous councils to be wound up and responsibility for billions of compensation extinguished.

Councils, architects, builders and suppliers of certain products should be ashamed of the incompetence demonstrated in the 1995 to 2008 period.

The era of "loose money", love it! Sort of sodom and gomorah stuff, blue light districts, Parisian powder puffs, cooking with the Italian pm and his bits on the side!
How long can the Noddyland flow of cheap credit and bullshit house prices continue. When will the great crash begin. How low can it go flo? Which council manages to screw the most from those wanting to build a pine box with lid? Will John and Bill throw other peoples money (ooops, debt) at the financial ruin that is 'dairying Noddyland style'? Can I get building approval for my container house? How bloody high can the council rates go before the riots start. Where will the first soup kitchen be setup? Anyone for jumping off the bottom of the OECD step ladder to misery?
Oh good question Lara, shall I tell you where they can shove our national govt?

Sorry Lara : You said wonderful achievements of this National Gumnut . I was looking for an achievement . Wonderful ones ....... now that is difficult .

1 - Got rid of Helen
2 - Got rid of Helen
3 - Got rid of Helen
4 - Sharpened some scissors
5 - Began the lengthy and dangerous process of cutting RED TAPE
6 - Kopu Bridge underway
7 - RMA reform
8 - Stood firm(ish) in ETS
9 - Faced down Anti-smacking bill changes
10 - Chucked out some Public Servents
11 - Tried to cut their own pay (not much, but they dont get much anyway)

Some one else want to add some more?

12 - GOT RID OF HELEN!

Well, I reckon it's a bit much to expect them to fire half the PSs, reduce/regulate welfare and sort the eyeball deep mess out in 5 minutes (or one term), and with the productive sector hobbled ( if that's not too polite), and debt out of control...

It a brave thing they're doing, like it or not! (I still don;t agree with everything, but we can't ALL agree with everything)

@Harriet: "better than no job and no pride?" What pride is there in a worthless job? but either way it is a tax...either via PAYE as we pay ppl on the dole or via rates as we pay them to do work that is no longer or never was needed.

With rates and a worthless job, they have no incentive to re-educate/train and move to a worthwhile, productive job...so they would be forever a drag on other ppl and a drag on NZ's economy and well being...sorry that's just not on.

regards

Auckland City is dealing with $240 million of leaky homes claims, the highest in New Zealand for any one council. Already, the council has paid out $50.9 million for 300 leaky building cases which cost $11.6 million in legal and expert fees.

Could be big rate rise for property owners to cover this debacle or would councils have insurance cover?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10597798