Revealed: Gisborne’s ‘Better Off’ funding is three waters continued waste

The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union can reveal through the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act that Gisborne District Council has allocated $7,210,000 to seven projects from the previous government’s three waters reform – better off package.

Although Gisborne District Council remains one of the few councils to keep rates increases below 10% – at 6.5%, the storm-battered region could have better allocated this funding to prevent these rises.

Local Government spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union, Sam Warren, said:

“Reviewing these seven projects shows where the fault lies on council books.  With $200k unused for management costs alone, or $400k to clean up an area for an art sculpture.

“The biggest project of $3 million to get less waste into landfill highlights the poor prioritisation of the nice-to-haves over need-to-haves strategy.

“As New Zealand’s Debt Clock ticks closer to $180 billion, councils up and down the country need to better prioritise what’s most important as the money tap for much of local government is turned off.”