Today's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

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#3202887 3-Mar-2024 20:16

kiwifidget:
I wasnt there, Himself told me this upon his return with some of the worst fish and chips we've ever had from there.

How much competition is there where you are? Are you able to vote with your feet?

HelloThere

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#3202891 3-Mar-2024 20:27

kiwifidget:
I wasnt there, Himself told me this upon his return with some of the worst fish and chips we've ever had from there.

Most eftpos machines now automatically display a surcharge amount if you use paywave or credit cards. The business still gets charged the fee at the end of the month but the surcharge helps pay it. At some places it can be in the hundreds of dollars which soon adds up for a small cafe. However, there should be no surcharge if you insert the card and use your pin. Maybe they are trying to encourage cash to keep it going or they are going to pocket it.

kiwifidget

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#3202892 3-Mar-2024 20:28

@jamesrt sadly there is not much, the other fish and chip shop is worse. Himself just needs to go fishing more. I mean, really, what is the point of being retired??!!

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

neb

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#3202897 3-Mar-2024 20:48

Handle9:
So because it's in GI it should be dump?

If the info I got was accurate, it should never have been built at all. Imagine what you could have done with that money to build a community medical centre with more doctors/medical staff, or fix up the schools, or ..., all of which would have seen more than three days use in the last month.

Handle9

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#3202899 3-Mar-2024 20:58

neb:
Handle9:
So because it's in GI it should be dump?

If the info I got was accurate, it should never have been built at all. Imagine what you could have done with that money to build a community medical centre with more doctors/medical staff, or fix up the schools, or ..., all of which would have seen more than three days use in the last month.

None of those things are the role of the council. Providing community facilities like sports fields, libraries and cultural centres is the role of the council.

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#3203006 4-Mar-2024 09:37

Technofreak:

That the Hamilton City Council thinks a 19.9% rates increase is OK. What universe do they live in?

If they cannot manage their budget to be close to the rate of inflation they need to look at how they're operating.

What should you do if you look at how you're operating and find that you have long ago trimmed all the fat off, and indeed cut some corners, and now have to increase rates by 19.9% just to cover the services that you are legally required to provide?

johno1234

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#3203018 4-Mar-2024 10:15

kiwifidget:

@jamesrt sadly there is not much, the other fish and chip shop is worse. Himself just needs to go fishing more. I mean, really, what is the point of being retired??!!

Love the sentiment!

However in my own experience, self-caught fish are running at an estimated cost of several thousand dollars each when factoring in all the overheads.

Technofreak

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#3203020 4-Mar-2024 10:17

frankv:

Technofreak:

That the Hamilton City Council thinks a 19.9% rates increase is OK. What universe do they live in?

If they cannot manage their budget to be close to the rate of inflation they need to look at how they're operating.

What should you do if you look at how you're operating and find that you have long ago trimmed all the fat off, and indeed cut some corners, and now have to increase rates by 19.9% just to cover the services that you are legally required to provide?

Continual increases at or above the rate of inflation, which is what has been happening indicates to me there has been no fat cut off or corners cut. It indicates the exact opposite has been happening.

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johno1234

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#3203023 4-Mar-2024 10:24

Handle9:

None of those things are the role of the council. Providing community facilities like sports fields, libraries and cultural centres is the role of the council.

Only if there's money left over after providing and maintaining basic services and infrastructure such as water supply, wastewater and stormwater management, road maintenance, waste collection, maintenance of public parks, buildings and spaces, provision of council services such as building permits, certifications and inspections and so on.

Critical essentials are being neglected while nice to haves are funded. Wellington City is probably the worst example.

Technofreak

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#3203034 4-Mar-2024 11:06

johno1234:

Handle9:

None of those things are the role of the council. Providing community facilities like sports fields, libraries and cultural centres is the role of the council.

Only if there's money left over after providing and maintaining basic services and infrastructure such as water supply, wastewater and stormwater management, road maintenance, waste collection, maintenance of public parks, buildings and spaces, provision of council services such as building permits, certifications and inspections and so on.

Critical essentials are being neglected while nice to haves are funded. Wellington City is probably the worst example.

If I'm not mistaken such things as building permits certifications, inspections etc are self funding and are not part of your rates.

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PolicyGuy

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#3203050 4-Mar-2024 11:59

Technofreak:

Continual increases at or above the rate of inflation, which is what has been happening indicates to me there has been no fat cut off or corners cut. It indicates the exact opposite has been happening.

Alternatively, changes in central government legislation have either increased the number of things local government has to do, and/or made these things more expensive to do, without providing any alternative source of funding for this additional expense.

For example:

drinking water sources and distribution systems are subject to much more stringent and much more expensive to implement and manage controls than even a few years ago;
council-owned property (office, halls, libraries, community centres, etc) are now required to be much more earthquake resistant than they used to be;
traffic management for repairs & maintenance to footpaths & council roads are much more complicated than ten years ago;
climate change induced weather events make assets that councils must protect more vulnerable to damage, increasing the cost of repairs, maintenance and insurance (insurance premiums are up 15% - 40% this year alone); and of course
GST being payable on rates immediately magnifies increases by 15%.

No, above-inflation rates rises are not necessarily evidence of council extravagance.
They might be at least to some degree, but assuming a direct cause and effect relationship is over-simplifying the situation.

John19612

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#3203055 4-Mar-2024 12:45

kiwifidget:

I wasnt there, Himself told me this upon his return with some of the worst fish and chips we've ever had from there.

Unfortunately, not only have fish and chips become smaller and much more expensive, it has become increasingly difficult to get even halfway decent quality.

msukiwi

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#3203060 4-Mar-2024 12:53

Every time a "Pro Active Drive " Branded SUV (Driving Instructor) is in the Street , he cannot do a proper (Without driving up someone's driveway) three point turn!

Technofreak

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#3203065 4-Mar-2024 12:57

PolicyGuy:

Technofreak:

Continual increases at or above the rate of inflation, which is what has been happening indicates to me there has been no fat cut off or corners cut. It indicates the exact opposite has been happening.

Alternatively, changes in central government legislation have either increased the number of things local government has to do, and/or made these things more expensive to do, without providing any alternative source of funding for this additional expense.

For example:

drinking water sources and distribution systems are subject to much more stringent and much more expensive to implement and manage controls than even a few years ago;
council-owned property (office, halls, libraries, community centres, etc) are now required to be much more earthquake resistant than they used to be;
traffic management for repairs & maintenance to footpaths & council roads are much more complicated than ten years ago;
climate change induced weather events make assets that councils must protect more vulnerable to damage, increasing the cost of repairs, maintenance and insurance (insurance premiums are up 15% - 40% this year alone); and of course
GST being payable on rates immediately magnifies increases by 15%.
No, above-inflation rates rises are not necessarily evidence of council extravagance.
They might be at least to some degree, but assuming a direct cause and effect relationship is over-simplifying the situation.

I agree making a direct relationship between inflation and rates increases is a simplistic view. However with the exception of drinking water all the other items you list apply equally to any business and thus are part of what causes the rate of inflation. Therefore those items are effectively zeroed out.

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neb

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#3203080 4-Mar-2024 14:00

johno1234: waste collection, maintenance of public parks, buildings and spaces,

Ran into a great example of council mismanagement of this on the weekend, they've been removing rubbish bins from parks and public spaces which has led to the totally predictable appearance of piles of rubbish where the bins used to be. The claim is that they're only removing the lesser-used bins based on data they have, except that on the very busy Devonport waterfront where the bins are not lesser-used they've also removed most of them, leading to overflowing bins for the few that remain.

This is a great example of gratuitous money-wasting, everyone except the geniuses who came up with the idea could tell you before they even started what this would lead to (see above), and if they really are doing this in a data-driven manner, all evidence to the contrary (see above again), then the solution is to decrease the frequency of collection of lesser-used bins, not the blanket removal of most bins.

I wonder if something like a council rule requiring that anyone making a decision leading to a loss of more than $1m in ratepayer funds would be automatically dismissed from their job would help mitigate stuff like this? It's easy enough to make obviously boneheaded decisions like this if it's someone else's money you're piling up and setting fire to.

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