Our great city faces the challenge of a growing gap between rich and poor. PHOTO / STUART MUNRO190913WCSMSCALES1
Tomorrow is the vernal equinox. After a long winter, it is when the hours of daylight equal the hours of starlight. It is a day to ponder balance, yin and yang, equality.
I've lived in New Zealand for five years and the more I've learned about the nation, the more concerned I've become about its future.
I chose to come here to earn a doctorate in education at the University of Waikato, and my wife and I chose to remain here after the completion of my degree. We enjoy living here, so much so that we chose to have our first child in our home in Castlecliff, Whanganui. We are proud our daughter is a New Zealand citizen.
Obviously she is precious to us, and every time we hear news of a school shooting in our native United States we are consoled knowing this little girl will never face such horrific circumstances.
But while New Zealand and the US differ with regard to firearms, they are not so different in terms of prison population per capita, drug abuse and other social problems.
I recently flew back from Boston after celebrating with my parents their 50 years of wedlock. As my flight neared the North Island, I was handed a slip of paper that asked, among other things, what was my primary occupation. I chose to write researcher, because that's what I've spent the last four years doing - albeit unpaid.
Thanks to excellent supervision at Waikato, and four years of writing and re-writing, my brain works differently than it did when I stepped off a plane in Auckland in June 2008.
As a researcher, I seek out the best information on a topic and attempt to build an argument in a clear, unbiased manner. What follows is just that.
A large and growing body of evidence suggests greater income inequality leads to greater social problems such as crime, drug abuse, domestic violence and teen pregnancy.
Based on research by British social scientists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, New Zealand is among the top nations in both income inequality and social problems (see The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better).
Wilkinson appeared briefly in TV3's Inside NZ: Mind the Gap on August 29 in an interview with documentarian Bryan Bruce. Wilkinson made the disturbing observation that the income gap in New Zealand had grown wider since 2009.
Bruce's doco also included interviews with a range of economists and researchers, whose words stirred within me anxiety about my daughter's future in an increasingly inequitable nation.
Some say all politics is local, so I'll limit the rest of my commentary to the Wanganui District Council and argue that the current rates structure exacerbates income inequality in our city and will likely result in more antisocial behaviour.
No one wants to see more crime, neglect and abuse in the River City, but that is the likely outcome if the WDC continues its trend of taxing the poor significantly more than the rich.
Using data provided by WDC in the Draft Annual Plan 2013/14, I took out a calculator and set to work. Using capital and land values provided, I was able to determine that rates average 1.1 per cent for the bottom five properties (lowest combined values), and average 0.55 per cent for the top five properties (highest combined values). Put simply, those living in cheaper houses pay twice as much as a percentage of combined land and capital value as those living in expensive houses.
The movement in rates also indicates the bottom five properties can expect a rates rise of 5.9 per cent, while the top five can expect a rise of 5.4 per cent. The rates gap will continue to widen, with those in modest homes paying more each year.
Combined with rising costs for food, power and petrol - which disproportionately impact low-income families - it would be unlikely to find anyone who would admit the trend in our rates structure is sustainable.
In many ways Whanganui is a great city, but we face many economic and social challenges. My fear is that our leadership will not have the vision and courage to address the widening gap. Social problems associated with income inequality affect all of us, and in the end we all pay for them one way or another.
I grew up on the outskirts of Detroit, and I know what weak leadership can do to a great city. Motown's recent bankruptcy was made worse by a moral bankruptcy that has existed in the mayor's office for decades.
In many ways it's too late for Motor City - but it's not for the River City. Can our leaders evaluate the research and make hard decisions in the best interest of all residents? Will they reverse the trend in rates?
And will Whanganui be the type of place where our daughter will want to live when she helps us celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary?