Pensioner refuses to pay ‘horrendous’ council rates

Liz Whiteside, 71, has written to all seven regional councillors and chief executive Darryl Lew, taking them to task over soaring rate bills.

I don’t agree with throwing money away on a service I am not receiving.

Ah, yes. That argument. She's fine with other people paying for her superannuation though.

Alternative headline: Pensioner Benefits Whole Life from Unsustainably Low Rates

A special fuck you to these kinds of people.

5 comments

I was wondering if someone would post this.

It's a bit hypocritical to live on money paid for by other tax payers that receive nothing from giving you that money then refuse to pay rates because she gets nothing out of it.

But man do I feel for her. She's living on a pension, on her own, getting $500 a week (around half of full time minimum wage - though admittedly more than most benefits). Then her rates went up 30% a few years back and 27% this year, and some unspecified amount in the in-between years, but that's already a 66% increase in 3 years (assuming the 27% is on top of the prior 30%).

I can understand her feeling hard done by.
- Is there a reason that the Council are closing in on a 70% rates rise?I'd be outraged also.
  
  I'm assuming it's because one of new Zealand's national sports is neglecting infrastructure maintenance for decades and then selling it off because it's too expensive.
  
  Then 40 years later when we can't have nice things any more, we need some infrastructure, we realise it has to be paid from somewhere and rates includes a lot of that 'somewhere'
  
  This has been a nationwide issue for generations, sadly - we're not really a first-world county (although technically, that's a political distinction, not about the std of living)
They make it sound like someone is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to own property