OPINION: The majority of New Zealanders would not support paying higher rates for more services from their local council and are not happy with the level of rates charged for the services councils currently provide.

These are the findings of Stuff's Your Place survey. Few people will be surprised by these views.

They are consistent with the tenor of many submissions by individuals to the 2007 Rates Inquiry and the recent review of local government funding and financing by the Productivity Commission.

They also reflect the debates taking place in our current local body elections. There is an old saying, "a person pays their income tax with resignation and their rates with anger".  

Concern about the level and growth of rates, which fund about half of local government expenditure, has bubbled away for years.

It has resulted in two public inquiries over the past 12 years – the 2007 Rates Inquiry and the Productivity Commission's 2019 inquiry into Local Government Funding and Financing which released its draft report in July.

Both concluded that the rating system remains generally appropriate, although the 2007 Inquiry, noted affordability issues for some people – particularly those who are "asset rich but income poor".

In the Stuff survey, results are broken down on a regional basis.

Seventy three per cent of Northlanders would not support paying higher rates for more services compared with 65 per cent in Auckland, 61 per cent in Wellington, 70 per cent in Canterbury, 58 per cent in Otago and 65 per cent in Southland.

On the flipside, that about one third of the country is prepared to pay more may be regarded as surprisingly high. 

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Perhaps people don't mind paying for targeted rates for specific projects – although it has not improved Auckland's score.

As would be expected, homeowners with a mortgage were less favourable to paying more rates than those without and renters being less negative than home owners.

Younger people aged 15-24 (presumably the majority of who do not own a home) were only 45 per cent negative compared with 78 per cent for those over 65. 

As to satisfaction with the current level of rates compared with the services provided, 65 per cent of New Zealanders were either unhappy or very unhappy.

For some reason, discontent diminished as we head south, with Northland at 75 per cent, Auckland, 65 per cent, Wellington, 64 per cent, Otago 59 per cent, and Southland 53 per cent.

Curiously these negative views did not change much with income levels. But as with the first question younger people were less negative than older people.

Why are there such negative views? It could reflect any or all of:

• concern about affordability of rates;
• a negative reaction to rate increases in excess of CPI;
• perceptions of wasteful or unnecessary council expenditure including high staff numbers.

The views of people giving positive answers to both these questions in the Your Place survey may reflect support for more expenditure on public transport, for fixing the infrastructure deficit, for environmental improvements such as reducing water pollution and dealing with the possible future effects of climate change. 

But this can only be speculation.

The Productivity Commission found that rates have remained relatively constant between 1993 and 2018, as a percentage of Gross National Income, household income and total government operating income.

So there is no real evidence of any surge in council expenditures, after allowing for population growth and inflation.

However these are aggregate or average figures which hide significant differences between individual councils.

And given the Commission's calculations that average rates are around 3 per cent of household income (adjusted for household composition and after housing costs) it is hard to see a major affordability issue for the average household, although of course not everybody is average.

Clearly though, local councils need to better explain their finances, rating policies and expenditures to their citizens if they wish to change the public's negative view of rates.