Turning the tables
Mickey just loves his referenda. Careful manipulation of the facts and an electorate where around half the people are too disinterested or disillusioned to bother casting a vote make it easy to derive the outcome you want. And if that fails, you can always throw away the votes and cook up the result yourself (c.f. The Demon Profession, re the NZ First list).
Of course he doesn't describe it that way. The diVision "democracy policy" says, grandly:
Vision Wanganui will, literally, give power to the people. A real and direct influence upon all issues of local significance and a more effective input into Council decision-making. We will also pioneer the concept of ‘direct democracy’ and ensure that Wanganui leads the rest of the country in its decision-making processes. We will create a genuine partnership between the Council and its ratepayers and residents.Etc etc... but buried beneath the rhetoric is this:
1.2 Citizens themselves may institute a district-wide referendum if 10% or over of those enrolled on the Wanganui District Council electoral roll gather the requisite signatures. Any subsequent referendum held would be binding upon the council (provided that the outcome did not breach any government legislation or legal guidelines).Hold that thought, Watchers, and turn your attention to the latest piece of Mickery... sorry, trickery, from the Mayor who promised "nil rates increases": a rates increase. Of 1.8 percent, no less, on top of a 3 percent increase in 2006/07, for a grand total of 4.8 percent over three years.
And that's if you accept that 2005/06 actually brought forth a nil rates rise, which
We could pause at this point to recite (somewhat predictably, we admit) our usual mantra: that this additional impost on ratepayers wouldn't be necessary (and Michael Laws would be our "Person of the Year" rather than Midweak's) if it weren't for the construction of monuments to Mickey's reign (e.g. the Splash Centre) and his personality (an enormous, and growing, legal bill).
But we're often asked whether we have alternative solutions to Wanganui's problems. In this case, we do.
A quick trawl through Wikipedia reminds us of California Proposition 13 (1978):
Proposition 13, officially titled the "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation," was a ballot initiative to amend the constitution of the state of California. The initiative was enacted by the voters of California on June 6, 1978. It would eventually be upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U.S. 1 (1992). Proposition 13 is embodied in Article 13A of the California Constitution.In fact Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado and Florida all went on to copy key provisions of the Proposition 13, while voters in 18 other states passed nearly 40 statewide tax-limiting measures. And bear in mind, Watchers, that in the US local councils not only fund the more prosaic stuff like sewage and water but also pay for police, fire brigades etc. So when Proposition 13 was advanced the naysayers predicted anarchy. Of course it never happened, and in fact the state grew faster than ever.
The most significant portion of the act is the first paragraph, which capped real estate taxes:SECTION 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed One percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.Its passage resulted in a cap on property tax rates in the state, reducing them by an average of 57%. In addition to lowering property taxes, the initiative also contained language requiring a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses for future increases in all state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates. Proposition 13 received an enormous amount of publicity, not only in California, but throughout the United States. Passage of the initiative presaged a "taxpayer revolt" throughout the country that is thought to have contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980.
The measure is not perfectly drafted. For one thing, it had the unexpected result of capping rates from commercial properties and thus shifting the overall burden toward homeowners. The share of state revenue from residential property taxes has steadily increased, while the proportion from commercial properties has steadily declined. But having been enacted in the US for over quarter of a century, it's easy to see where Proposition 13 succeeds (stopping Councils raising rates to pay for their own follies) and where it fails, and to draft something better.
So here's our solution. Getting ten percent of voters - stung by an average 4.8% increase to cover Mickey's profligacy over the past three years - to sign a citizens-initiated referendum imposing a rates cap similar to Proposition 13 ought not to be hard.
Once the thing is signed, march on Guyton Street and deliver it to Michael Laws (cameras in tow, of course, so he and Antoinette Back can't lose a few reams of it between the front steps and his office). Then sit back and watch the fun, and start thinking of what you'll spend your extra money on once Mad Mickey's Expenditure Tango trips over its own shoelaces.
More on Proposition 13 (and well worth a read) from the Cato Institute, Cal-Tax Research, PBS, and the full text of the law is here.
Comments on this post are now closed.
46 comments:
Only a 1.8% rate increase? GREAT that the council kept it so low.
Of course it's a 1.8% rates increase, people. The Storm and Soft Water "Levies" aren't rates increases at all really. They're simply compulsory extra charges going from my bank account into WDC's. No, not rates increases at all.
Mickey thinks you're stupid, Wanganui.
I pay $1334 dollars per year. This year this will rise to $1478, including "Storm Levy" and "Soft Water Levy" and that is a 10.8% rates rise, you lying little fuck, Mickey.
Since these "levies" have to be accounted for and collected as though they really are separate from rates, they'll also cost more to administer.
More stupid expensive waste of my money for self-serving politics. Add the costs of lawyers for Mickey's loony fantasies and the lawyers for the employment court and the lawyers for the dog control dept. and you've probably got the extra dosh they'll collect right there.
So what's going to pay for the continuing blow-out of construction costs? More borrowing?
And Loony Tunes wants more money to build car parks and libraries.
LOL...Mickey's not done with you yet Wanganui....There's more to come with the Heart of Wanganui debacle yet to rear it's ugly head.
You guys moaning on the blog - you deserve whoever gets to be Mayor of your city next time. What a loss it is going to be when ML is no longer Mayor of Wanganui. From where I'm sitting you guys are lucky to have him.
Moron of the Week said:
"Anonymous said...
I pay $1334 dollars per year. This year this will rise to $1478, including "Storm Levy" and "Soft Water Levy" and that is a 10.8% rates rise, you lying little fuck, Mickey.
2:05 PM, March 06, 2007"
From my reading of the Chronicle these past months, the 'lying little fuck" is the above poster.
According to the independent reports the average Wanganui household gets a $230 benefit from soft water.
$1478 minus $230 equals $1248.
My faithful abucus says that Moron above is better off by $86 - a rates decrease in real terms.
That's the real problem with the Mayor's opposition. It is SO dumb.
Let me get this right, LawsWatch.
The 1.8% rates increase is a bad thing? I would be very surprised if any council has delivered 5% rates or less for the past three years - my mum paid three times that increase just last year alone in another district.
This council is a miracle worker.
And how much will this mayoral mile day cost the ratepayers?
Naturally they will say it is funded through WINC. But isn't WINC funded by council. Whatever! it is still the ratepayers money being spent/wasted.
Lawswatch, it appears that you were taken in by Chronymickey's story. Shame on you. Remember:
Q: How can you tell when Michael Laws is lying?
A: His lips move.
Hey Mickey,now that Morgs has gone back to school and isn't available to do your staggeringly stupid surveys for you ... and you've lost Pep's loving support around the council table, couldn't you just appoint Antoinette Beck to fill the vacancy?
With Pep a gonna and Dotty now outside the tent and about to piss in, you're gonna need a reliable little barbie doll to put her hand up for Mickey when the going gets tough, and Antoinette's just the sort of multi-tasker you need.
You could even start grooming her to be the next mayor of Wanganui!
Tee hee hee ... the headline writer on the Chronic seems to have a sense of humour with:
Councillors see flaws in CCTV survey.
Of course they see the hand of Michael Brian fLaws aka Antoinette Beck in the latest cheap re-election campaign stunt by Mickey (I'm not standing for the sake of my dear wife and kids) Mayor.
Evidence on page four of the Chronic that Dr Warbum does care about opening the council up to being sued, but only when it involves trees and NOT when it's the mad mayor frothing defamation from his big mouth:
"Asked about public liability council CEO David Warburton said if the council know the trees (what about mayor) were unstable and did nothing 'then we run the risk of leaving ourselves open to a claim of negligence."
Want to understand more about Mickey? This article may help.
4.8% total rates rise over 3 years is profligacy? Where is your brain??
From where I'm sitting you guys are lucky to have him.
Yes, and isn't it about time you moved, anon? We're sure Mickey's leg must be going numb by now.
$1478 minus $230 equals $1248.
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What $230? Didn't spend $230 last year. Or the year before that, or the two years before that either. In fact, thus far the annual spend on hot-water maintenance in the last four plus years is $0.
So once again you're shown to be either full of shit or lying. I think you're lying, just like Michael Laws does every single time he opens his mouth.
It's a ten percent rates increase, but by all means lie about it if it helps your psychosis.
"my dear wife..."
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She's not his wife.
Two points to consider by those commenters who are praising a rise of 4.8% (plus "levies") as a "miracle".
1. Then minus the Splash Centre blow-out, the legal fees blow-out and all the other Mickey-induced blowouts, the figure would presumably be in the negative, or at least a true zero. Would that not be a greater miracle? Or are you happy to have Mickey waste your money on baubles?
2. Just because someone's mum paid more (or less) rates increase in someplace altogether different to Wanganui, how is that any measure at all of this Council's performance? If the GDP of NZ rises more slowly than that of Australia are we worse? Or just facing an entirely different set of circumstances, expenses, infrastructure, contributer (taxpayer / ratepayer) numbers...?
Anon said "According to the independent reports the average Wanganui household gets a $230 benefit from soft water".
Independent- oh really !!
If one believes this they are truly gullible.
Just ask yourself - what's your total household spend on detergents, soaps etc and then consider how many times you replace your jug element , hot water cylinder - mine has lasted at least 20years so far and still OK. Plus Aramoho and Wanganui East are already getting soft water. Listen to Cr Don McGregor - just allow the new bores to soften the water as they are commissioned - dont pay $79 next year and god knows how much each and every year after for dubious gains.
Not too mention chalking up another $4.5M debt for our future generations.
Like many households, the softwater levy is just going to add to the expenses. I won't save a proverbial bean. Moreover, I've never seen a sensible answer to what could be a serious unwanted consequence. All that hard water has left a lime deposit on the inside of the pipes, nicely bocking up any holes. Soft water flowing through the pipes is going to gradually dissolve that deposit. Just the same as it does in your electric jug. So what are the chances that one, two years down the track the pipes are going to start leaking. With expensive consquences. I'm not saying the softer water isn't a good idea, I just wish I didn't feel it might come with some nasty fish hooks.
Anonymous said...
You guys moaning on the blog - you deserve whoever gets to be Mayor of your city next time. What a loss it is going to be when ML is no longer Mayor of Wanganui. From where I'm sitting you guys are lucky to have him.
7:32 PM, March 06, 2007
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Obviously you're not "sitting" in Wanganui.
Mickey’s latest press release says: “Mr Laws said that yet again the DHB had produced negative headlines nationally …”
*****
Shock horror probe!! Of course anybody or anything that produces negative headlines nationally for Wanganui deserves a good old spanking from our pathetic hypocrite mayor. Obviously he’s got the pip because negative national headlines are his exclusive preserve so no wonder he doesn’t want the DHB muscling in on his territory.
Here's a headline that could've run at any time in the last 2 years:
Loony Mayor With Potty Mouth Well Out Of His Depth!!
Yay - John Martin, the white knight will rescue Whanganui.
H has only one problem and that is if elected the majority of the councillors are Vision. It could happen and Laws is still running for council isn't he?
The poster who says that there are no direct financial benefits from soft water is deluding himself.
The only question people should ask is why council did not do it quicker. It will be the mayor's enduring legacy to Wanganui when everything else is forgotten.
It will be the mayor's enduring legacy to Wanganui when everything else is forgotten.
8:20 AM, March 08, 2007
++++++++
You're right, Mickey. One day they'll open up your skull and find the hole filled with calcium accretions and scale from the Wanganui water supply because nature abhors a vacuum. THAT will beyour enduring legacy to Wanganui.
The poster who says that there are no direct financial benefits from soft water is deluding himself.
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Which poster said this? Someone remarked that $230 is another lie from lying Laws, not that there are "no" benefits.
Can't you read, are you having trouble understanding English, or are you deliberately distorting the facts to tell yet another lie?
$8,000 to move a temperature recording device. Yet another overspend, (wait to see the "Representation" $s in the Annual Report)for the latest burst of flimflammery from the talkback Mayor. 2-3 years ago, Philip Shackleton reported to Council that there was an AVERAGE difference of 0.3 degrees Centigrade between the airport (MetService) figures and the Spriggens Park (NIWA) site. More image over substance from Mickey.
From Council website, regarding the back of Vega:
"no application has been made for a licence to occupy or a temporary road closure"
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I've heard a previous owner (not the current one) say that according to the title, Vega have the right to block the road. There was talk of building a deck over the road! Something to do with land ownership.
Hope this isn't Mad Mickey's Council with egg on face again.
Its plain silly for anyone to state that there 'must' be direct savings from softening the water supply. Any one individual MAY make savings but not everyone WILL. It all depends on where they are, where their main water supply comes from, how they use it, and if they've already got a water softener permanently installed. In my case I won'r make any direct savings because one of the above means I already get soft water. The levy will be an extra on top of my rates for which I will receive no benefit. I'm sure someone else may get a direct benefit, just not me.
It's in the agenda for next weeks Strategy meeting - the official loss on the Boxing Day Concert is $97215 - not the $70,000 told to us by the lying Laws. The WINC report also says that only about 500 of the estimated 9000 attendees at the motorbikes were interested enough in going to the concert.
Anonymous said...
"$8,000 to move a temperature recording device- what a waste"
The data given to Council also said that the reverse applied in winter- the coastal site was warmer than the Spriggens Park site.
apples with apples.
Collegiate isn not Sprigeens park you morons.
as for the fuckwit who says that because he has a water softener, he is opposed to water softening. Fuck off. we dont want your mendacious arse in Wanganui.
What the f***k are you guys gonna moan about come October? This blog is a joke all around the country.
Anonymous said...
It's in the agenda for next weeks Strategy meeting - the official loss on the Boxing Day Concert is $97215 - not the $70,000 told to us by the lying Laws.
******
Hey Ms Cron Editor ... bet your boy Mas doesn't put this on the front page!
This blog is a joke all around the country.
Are you kidding, anon? Or just seriously deluded?
No one outside of Wanganui (alright, almost no one) would bother visiting here regardless of the quality of our prose because Mickey is utterly unimportant outside the township and important within it only because he has got himself into a position to do some damage.
To think this blog is a topic of discussion for the "whole country" you'd have to believe Mickey's deluded sense of self-importance, anon. And you surely can't be that daft?
This blog is a joke all around the country.
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I've heard that this blog is a topic of serious conversation where local government people gather and it's seen as a very useful insight into the Unfortunate (social/economic/talkback/governance/management?) Experiment to which Wanganui is being unwittingly subjected.
A lot like Herb Green, in fact, hawking those uteruses (or is that uterii) around the world and proclaiming himself a scientific genius, Mickey hauls the rotting corpse of Wanganui around NZ's"celebrity" circuit and wonders how long he can get away with it.
What the f***k are you guys gonna moan about come October?
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Who's moaning? The fact that your hero is an antedeluvian loon is a subject for comedy.
Hadn't you realised? You're one of the 2% who listen to him?
because he has a water softener, he is opposed to water softening. Fuck off. we dont want your mendacious arse
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Potty Mouth doesn't understand the meaning of "mendacious".
While Mickey is mayor, Potty Mouth has no ground to stand on.
The "Mayor" gets 26 people in Wangas listening to his hate speech radio each day.
Lawswatch gets a bigger Wanganui audience.
Sad but true.
Easy to be brave and spout your crap when you know he isn't going to stand again anyway. Balls? You guys wouldn't know what the F**k balls are.
Oh no, not Dancing with the Stars
By JANE BOWRON
Let's shake a leg and roll out the sequins for it's time for another scintillating year of Dancing with the Stars.
TVNZ's announcement that this year's DWTS lineup includes Treasure Island has-beens such as Greer Robson, Suzanne Paul, April Ieremia and Michael Laws proves that the network has no money in the coffers to hire any real talent and has to rely on its stable of trained mice to peddle the wheel of its most profitable show.
Dollars for donuts mayor Michael Laws will make a beeline for the costume department and opt for the one-piece dancing suits male ballroom dancers favour and will make sure his top half is open right down to the waist.
Having the current crop of DWTS leering from the covers of the women's magazines as they tell the breathless story of their new found passion for the paso doble and show off their amazing weight loss for eight long weeks is too depressing for words.
Someone should start up a campaign similar to recent suggestions to have cigarettes placed out of sight at shop counters, and magazines bearing the heavy cargo of shameless self- promotion from these come-back- kids should follow suit.
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Keep peddling that wheel, Mickey Mouse Mayor ... and keep peddling your Mickey Mouse Mayor, Mas!
Anonymous said...
What the f***k are you guys gonna moan about come October? This blog is a joke all around the country.
7:15 PM, March 08, 2007
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More likely it's the Laws supporters that are the joke of this blog and the "joke all around the country"...LOL
You've got to feel a little bit sorry for Mickey's partner in Dancing with Losers as she obviously drew the short story (in every sense).
But then she didn't exactly shine in the first series, not being able to get Ewan Gilmore past the second round. Only the awful Nicky Watson went earlier.
So perhaps she's just the one that gets lumbered with the real losers.
You people are sad! Get a life! Mickey is the best thing that has happened to this town for a long time!
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