Tension over how to fund Tauranga's growing infrastructure and amenity needs has bubbled up at a meeting of Bay leaders.
Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller and Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless traded political swipes and ideas yesterday.
They were speakers at Tauranga Chamber of Commerce's annual City Leaders Lunch, along with Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology chief executive Leon Fourie.
Answering a question about the need for more amenities in Tauranga, Muller said historic rates rises had not been high enough to meet the council's vision for the city.
Later he said it was a personal observation from his 14 years as Tauranga City ratepayer.
He believed that any dispassionate observer could see the council had underinvested in community amenities over the past 40 years.
The council needed to "sell the vision", and make the case for the investment that was needed, he said.
"They should be very clear about what amenities they think Tauranga needs over the next 10 years, and they should be very upfront about the costs.
"I think there's a greater appetite for that in the community than we've ever seen before."
Mayor Greg Brownless said he did not believe people were "clamouring" for rates rises beyond "reasonable" limits. He believed the property rating system wasn't very fair, placing too much burden on homeowners.
In addition, local councils were "being given more things to do" that had traditionally been central government responsibilities, such as social issues.
The Government's offer of a loan to help meet the costs of new requirements to supply land and infrastructure for growth would cause the council to overrun its borrowing limit.
"Perhaps I could twist Todd's arm here, and substitute the loan for a grant?"
New funding sources needed to be explored to reduce reliance on rates, Brownless said.
"One that is becoming more obvious to me is a portion of the GST raised in this area could be returned to this area."
If for example, $900 million in tourism spending in the region attracted a GST bill of $100 million, then even 1 per cent of that, $1 million, could help pay for Bay tourism promotion directly, he said. "But the Government gets all of that."
Muller did not support the idea. "My personal view is that the country is too small for us to be parochial when divvying up the GST take."
He supported an "NZ Inc" approach to Government infrastructure investment.
Both leaders spoke about the exponential change happening in the world and in Tauranga, and about the role of rapidly adapting technology in those changes.
Muller called on city business leaders to invest in people and their talents, taking remuneration beyond pay and into upskilling.
Brownless wanted to see community buy-in for projects that were hard to quantify in simply economic terms, such as a well-run museum.
"Paris could have built an Eiffel tower or an Eiffel stick. Sydney a Sydney Opera House or Sydney Opera Shed. On a different scale Tauranga is faced with very similar decisions. Which would you rather have?"
Education leader Fourie laid out the challenges and opportunities facing Bay tertiary educators.
He wanted to see greater connections between Bay schools, tertiary institutes of all varieties, iwi, and businesses to ensure programmes complemented each other and would meet regional needs.