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Speaker 1: This rates cap popular politics, no doubt about it, and

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Speaker 1: local government needs a good kick in the pants. We

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Speaker 1: all know that. But does a two to four percent

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Speaker 1: band simply mean that we're going to pay more? In

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Speaker 1: other sneaky little fees? Rates aren't the only way these

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Speaker 1: guys make money off us. We also pay for specific

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Speaker 1: things like resource and building consents, limb requests, dog registrations, campgrounds.

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Speaker 1: Will hairdressers have to pay more to register under the

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Speaker 1: Health Act? Yes, this is a thing in Kaipitter for example,

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Speaker 1: I had a look this morning. It'll cost your business

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Speaker 1: four hundred and twenty three bucks, thank you very much

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Speaker 1: to do that. Will we pay more for a burial

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Speaker 1: plot at the local cemetery? That's another fee? Will we

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Speaker 1: pay more to register our dogs? The options are endless.

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Speaker 1: Waikato District Council has a document setting out the fees

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Speaker 1: that it wax on rate payers. It's forty five pages long.

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Speaker 1: Four five The governments, you know they've done this too.

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Speaker 1: They can change the revenue levers and stop them one,

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Speaker 1: but they haven't stopped them pulling the other. And actually,

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Speaker 1: if you look at it, this is exactly what the

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Speaker 1: government itself has been doing. We are seeing the rise

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Speaker 1: of the fee. Twenty twenty six will be the year

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Speaker 1: of the fee, the surcharge. The Coalition may have cut taxes,

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Speaker 1: but they are also overseeing one of the biggest hikes

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Speaker 1: in fees and charges of any government in recent history.

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Speaker 1: Road user charges, user pays, road tolls, congestion chargings, coming

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Speaker 1: fines are going up, immigration fees, airport fees, you name it.

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Speaker 1: If you can name it, chances are it's heading north.

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Speaker 1: It's a strategy. The top line number comes down, but

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Speaker 1: all the little bits that they hope we won't notice

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Speaker 1: go up. Councils will be no different. Add in the

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Speaker 1: water done Well fee, which is separate from this, remember,

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Speaker 1: which will be massive also in some places. And the

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Speaker 1: reality is I think that no ratepayer will feel like

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Speaker 1: they're getting a better deal post cap band. The question

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Speaker 1: is whether this is a reason not to do it,

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Speaker 1: of course, and the answer is probably not. But it

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Speaker 1: should come with tempered expectations that we won't feel fleeced

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Speaker 1: when the council emails those pesky quarterly rates bills to us,

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Speaker 1: or worse, still charges you for sending a hard copy

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Speaker 1: by snail mail. For more from early edition with Ryan

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Speaker 1: Bridge listen live to news talks it'd be from five

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Speaker 1: am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio