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Home / New Zealand

Piako-style 'rain tax' for Waikato

30 Jun, 2000 03:24 AM2 mins to read

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By Scott MacLeod

HAMILTON - People living near the Waikato River may have to pay for flood-works under a controversial rating system that has been labelled a rain tax.

Environment Waikato said this week that it needed $1.2 million each year to maintain the river's flood control system, but money was likely
to dry up within four years.

The manager of the council's asset management group, Scott Fowlds, confirmed that a differential rating system proposed for the Piako River Scheme might also be used for the Waikato.

The Piako plan has sparked protest from hill-country farmers told they will have to help pay for the stopbanks because water from their land worsens flooding on the plains.

Four lobby groups last week joined forces in a rearguard battle against the Piako system, which is likely to be approved tomorrow.

The Piako Upper Catchment Group, Commercial and Industrial Ratepayers, and two branches of Federated Farmers told the council it had wrongly interpreted the law, failed to look at alternatives and was proposing a system too complex to be understood by those being asked to pay.

Graeme Trower, whose catchment group represents 600 people, believes the fight is likely to spill into court if the council approves the plan.

"I hope it doesn't come to that, but we won't let it rest."

The president of Hauraki-Coromandel Federated Farmers, Ralph Corlett, said levying flooding rates on Piako farmland would force down its value. Ratepayers would pay according to 36 differentials - far too complicated for most people to understand.

Mr Fowlds said much of the money for the Waikato River system came from sand-dredging royalties, leases and the Tongariro power deal to divert water into the river. Cash was likely to dwindle by 2004.

However, any rate levied on Waikato River ratepayers would be tiny compared with the Waipa system, he said.

"I don't think people need to be scared of it."

The Piako scheme protects 159,000ha in the Thames Valley and Hauraki Plains from flooding. The council says it needs to reap $1.8 million from 9000 Piako ratepayers because the Government refuses to give more money for flood control.

Under the proposal, ratepayers in Ngatea would pay a special rate of $135 a year. People in Matamata and Morrinsville would also pay more.

Rural people would mostly pay $5 to $25 a hectare, although some areas would pay up to $52.

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