The Advertising Standards Authority has dismissed a complaint by a Hastings District Councillor against pro-amalgamation lobby group A Better Hawke's Bay (ABHB).
Councillor Wayne Bradshaw complained to the authority about an ABHB advertisement that appeared in print and on Facebook last month.
Mr Bradshaw said the advertisement demonstrated "the increasingly exaggerated claims made at a time when the local government was surveying ratepayers on views on amalgamation".
The advertisement said Hawke's Bay ratepayers would "only be responsible for servicing the debts owed by their current council under the current system," if a proposal by the Local Government Commission to merge the region's council into a single authority went ahead.
Mr Bradshaw complained that the advertisement was misleading in the way it rephrased a statement made by the commission in a brochure circulated to Hawke's Bay households.