Press Release
Ryan Hicks
Eden Albert Community Board Member
Auckland city
“Young people need to think of their futures and those of their families as they go into the first election with Auckland as one city, as it always should have been" says Ryan Hicks, Eden Albert community Board Member.
"Basically what they’ve done is to revert back to a system similar to the old Borough’s with a stronger regional council. This is what we should have had all along", he says, "and those in the Auckland region would never have had to go through the 20 year failed experiment that saw rates rise by 500% while inflation was barely half that."
"But I believe a new generation of Aucklanders is ready for them and will be watching them closely this time. We won’t wait for 20 years (like our parents did) to cry foul if they try to sock it too us again. What Aucklanders demand is a modern efficiently run city based on principles of equality, opportunity and reward for hard work. Young Aucklanders deserve value for money from their rates and user charges because they are already struggling with ludicrously high costs and house prices" he says "Young people are Auckland’s future and already have to pay for the mistakes of the past." Talk about not getting any rates reductions makes me nervous" he says and he is demanding that rates and user charges fall in real terms in the medium to long term.
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