Change the Majority, Change Everything
By Horiana Henderson: Council Candidate Hamilton East
Hamilton City Council decisions come down to one thing: the majority around the table. For years, Hamiltonians have warned that the current majority is spending too much and pushing rates too high. The 2024 Long-Term Plan (LTP) submissions confirmed it.
Of nearly 3,000 submissions, 1,111 said rates were too high, 420 demanded spending cuts, and only 378 supported the Council’s financial approach. Even Mayor Paula Southgate conceded:
“I hear loud and clear that the proposed rate rises are clearly unaffordable for many, especially those on fixed incomes.”
However, instead of reducing debt, cutting spending, or easing rates, Council doubled down. On June 24, HCC’s Finance and Monitoring Committee voted 6–5 to borrow another half a million dollars—on top of more than $1 billion already owed—to fund a business case for the Ratepayer Assessment Scheme (RAS).
The RAS is one of 25 tools being recommended to local councils as part of Local Government New Zealand’s Funding and Finance Toolkit. It will loan money to homeowners who can’t afford their rates, secured against their homes. Pensioners and first homeowners were identified as target markets. Funding the business case now was also unnecessary and risky. Council could join later without taking on the debt. It is choosing to borrow anyway.
It’s hard to believe that those 1,111 LTP submissions warning about unaffordable rates were pleas for a scheme that risks people leveraging—or even losing—their homes just to pay Council bills.
Hamiltonians sent a clear message. Council missed it—spectacularly. With elections coming, voters have the perfect opportunity to decide who holds the majority, to look at which councillors backed these decisions and hold them to account.
Real change looks like honest consultation and plain language. On schemes like the RAS, ask the question outright: “Do you want us to let people borrow against their homes to pay rates?” No spin. No hiding. No more schemes sprung on struggling ratepayers.
Transparency is the bare minimum. Every decision, every dollar, every vote should be visible: cost breakdowns, voting records, clear updates and outcomes. If Council stands by its choices, it should show them in plain sight.
Hamilton has three major tertiary institutions. Council should encourage independent research from these institutions into their current practices. This research would be published publicly, a process that would result in scrutiny of council projects and foster further research into solutions that work for residents. This would also correct the common problems with HCC’s current consultation processes which include: the use of leading questions, optimism bias, and results in engagement that does not provide an authentic picture of the community impact. Done well, it would reveal efficiencies and set a standard other councils could copy.
But research isn’t enough. Staff and elected members need to front up in the community, hold public forums and regular drop-ins to champion face-to-face conversations and to hear from real people on their turf.
Rates affordability and housing security are too important to outsource to an LGNZ toolkit or to the preferences of its mayors and chief executives. Thousands engaged with the LTP. Now it’s Council’s turn to listen, respond, and co-design a plan that protects homes and secures the city’s finances—or face change at the ballot box.
References
https://www.lgnz.co.nz/news/media-releases/lgnz-sets-out-tools-to-reduce-ratepayer-burden/
