Kaipara ratepayers are facing an average 31 per cent rate increase - yet one man's payment is about to double while his mayor faces only a 25 per cent increase.
The doubling of his rates is evidence of a situation Mangawhai ratepayer Clive Boonham, a retired lawyer, claims is outside
the law and shows the district is being run by ''cowboys''. In protest, Mr Boonham is boycotting paying his rates.
Kaipara District Council (KDC) online information shows Mayor Neil Tiller faces a 25 per cent increase with the rates on his Baylys Beach home expected to rise from $908 in 2011/12 to $1141 in 2012/13.
But Mr Boonham's rates on his Mangawhai holiday bach are set to rise from $4978 to $10,074 over the same period.
Mr Tiller told the Advocate the 25 per cent was not entirely accurate as he paid an additional $2800 annually for wastewater disposal at his home through a private sewerage scheme. He also said a comparison with Mr Boonham's rates was unfair as there were two units on Mr Boonham's property, each attracting separate rates.
Mr Tiller said 75 per cent of Mangawhai properties had land values of around $200,000 and attracted much lower rates than the ''million-dollar places along the foreshore Golden Mile'' like Mr Boonham's. A decade ago Mr Boonham's 0.8ha property had a land value of $216,000, capital value of $360,000 and its 2001/02 rates were $1445. ''The council can't be blamed for increased land values - it's the people buying these places who push the values up,'' Mr Tiller said.
Mr Boonham, a retired lawyer from Auckland, said his holiday home had an annex attached. The property had one sewerage connection, two lavatories and three bedrooms and he and his wife were the only occupants. ''They (the council) are applying the law illegally to charge double.''
Mr Boonham has not paid his rates for a year. ''These KDC cowboys are operating totally outside the law
'I won't pay my rates,' says resident
and I refuse to pay any monies to an illegal regime," he says on his KaiparaConcerns website. "If the KDC, Audit NZ and the Auditor-General can treat the obligatory provisions of the Local Government Act as optional, it seems only fair that ratepayers should have a choice whether they pay their rates or not."
Early last month Mr Boonham laid a complaint on behalf of Kaipara ratepayers with Wellsford police and the Serious Fraud Office over $9.5 million the KDC has admitted was incorrectly collected.
The complaint followed a request for the council to return the money, which it declined to do, claiming cash taken through invalid rates did not raise issues of criminal law.
Wellsford police sent the complaint to the Dargaville police station, where Sergeant Jonathan Tier said he expected it would be investigated to see if the issues involved were of a criminal or civil nature.