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Happy
Saturday Friend,
It's been another busy week. Let's get into
it.
Common sense prevails: TWO Taxpayer
Heroes in one
week! 🦸♂️💥
Firstly, in
a move designed to make us fall out of our chairs, someone in the
Wellington bubble made a good decision this week.
Taxpayer Hero Brooke van Velden has
stopped Internal Affairs from blowing money on yet another pointless
rebrand. Instead of wasting taxpayer cash on consultants and design
agencies, Brooke made sure the job was done quickly and cheaply.
She reckons it's cost $740, instead of a whopping
$50,000.
It’s a big win for taxpayers – and
exactly the kind of common sense we need more of in
Wellington.
Brooke, you know where to find us if you want
more cost-cutting ideas.
Mary, Queen of Cost Cutting
👑
And, in a total 10/10 Taxpayer
Hero move, we found out about a council CEO actually
refusing a pay increase!
We did give Mary a little shout out last week for
cutting the CEO salary when she replaced Dawn Baxdendale as CEO of
Christchurch City Council.
What we didn’t know was that in her
annual review, Mary was offered – and DECLINED – a pay increase at her
annual review. In her own words, Mary said “it’s important to
acknowledge the realities our community is facing, especially the
financial pressures many residents are currently
experiencing.”
Now, we’ll call that Taxpayer Hero
behaviour 👏
e-RUC: Smarter System or Big Brother?
🚗👁️
Last week the Government announced
changes to Road User Charges, including the option of “e-RUC” – a
digital system that could mean vehicles are tracked in real time. It
will mean cheaper gas at the pump, but new e-RUCs even for petrol
vehicles.
Supporters
say it’s a smarter, more efficient way to manage charges. And if
you're a boatie, you'll feel some relief at the pump.
But others
worry about privacy, especially if NZTA’s data security isn’t rock
solid. If agencies can’t guarantee
protection (remember the IRD leak?), is constant tracking a risk worth
taking?
We want to know what you think: 👉 Share
your view in our quick poll.
NZ On Air’s $500K encore (that Kiwis
didn’t ask for) 🎸
NZ On Air
think taxpayers are made of money. They’ve just set aside $500,000 for
a “pilot tour fund” – but only for artists who’ve already had
their big taxpayer-funded break and a headline tour.
So instead of giving new talent a shot, we’re all
being forced to cough up for an encore no one asked for. Half a
million bucks — poof.
Friend, most of us are just trying to
afford our own weekend plans. Maybe a trip to the supermarket, maybe a
night at the movies. Sadly, none of us get to send the receipt to NZ
On Air.
Taxpayer money should help fresh voices be heard
— not fund second encores for the already-famous and
successful.
West Coast is drowning in paperwork (and
it’s all your fault, apparently) 📝
So the West
Coast Regional Council is having a bit of a moan. Turns out they got
39 official information requests last quarter. Thirty-nine.
That’s not even one a day, but apparently it’s enough to send
staff into meltdown mode.
Nine of those requests were about the Taylorville
Resource Park consent (because, surprise, people actually care about
what’s happening in their backyard). A couple of deadlines were
missed, an apology was issued, and some answers got redacted under the
usual “commercial sensitivity, privacy, legal privilege” bingo.
The chief exec’s line is basically that people
are wasting their own money with “vexatious” requests. And yes,
democracy can be slow and sometimes messy. Transparency takes
time.
But when councils start acting like 39
emails is the end of the world, maybe the problem isn’t the questions,
it’s who is giving the answers. And with a 65.57% rates hike, it's a
bit rich that they still complain about giving you
answers.
As for the financial requests (such as those from
your humble Taxpayers' Union)? Easy solution: West Coast Regional
Council could save people having to ask by adopting a UK-style
'armchair audit' open data regime where all expenditure over $500 is
put online. That would save a lot of time (and
money...).
Kāpiti Council Sends CEO to Harvard
🎓
Finally,
the Kāpiti Council CEO story is the gift that keeps on giving (to
the CEO, that is).
The story broke last week that Kāpiti
Coast District Council splashed nearly $43,000 on a six-day Harvard
Business School course for its CEO, which is shocking enough as it
is.
But, Friend, it gets worse. It turns out
that the Council didn't even bother to ensure the CEO sticks around so
that ratepayers get the benifits. No bond, no payback clause, no
strings attached. This is not how $40k professional
development works in the private sector.
So while homes on the Coast are tightening belts,
council money’s flying first class – to Harvard. It’s one thing to
develop leadership. It’s quite another to let the CEO walk off
with free training while ratepayers pick up the
tab.
Have
a great weekend.
 |
Tory
Relf
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union
|
PS. I'm all for paying less at the petrol
pump, but I still can't decide whether I'm okay with the Government -
or their private partners - tracking my car. Let
me know what you think using our poll.
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