Who really pays for election promises?

The policies are coming thick and fast, right? And one of the really interesting ones, I thought, was National putting this line in the sand saying, no new taxes.

Right.

Which sounds great if you feel like you pay too much tax, but are there

some consequences of a call like that? Yeah, this is an election that's all about the money, right? And National clearly decided that their easiest tagline this election was going to be the no new taxes line.

The problem is, if they get back in government, what does that mean for any extra levies and charges that they may have wanted to increase? We already see, obviously, they've had to say that they won't increase the fuel tax or road user charges.

But at the same time, we've got a bill that's just passed through Parliament for time of use charging, for congestion charging, and Aucklanders in a couple of years' time might be paying to come into the city.

You pay for a toll road if you If you head up north, we've got more toll roads coming on the way.

Those are fees, levies, charges, taxes, whatever you want to call them.

And I think there is a difference between a tax and a levy.

And it's just, it feels a bit like it's a political stick for National to hit Labour with without potentially thinking it entirely through.

And at the same time, angering a lot of people around, for instance, the bed levy.

Well, that's a really interesting one because at the same time they're saying we'll introduce a rates cap and anyone who's seen their rates go up and up and up might well say, well, that's really good for my finances.

However, how do the councils raise more revenue, which they need, if both of those things are

And we could list off any issue, but let's look at Wellington right now.

We just saw the Moa Point report came out.

Wellingtonians are facing huge increasing water bills that have now been separated out from their rates.

So for the first time, they're facing those water bills.

Te Akiwai is in the gun over that because of years of underinvestment in infrastructure that people haven't wanted to pay for because they haven't wanted their rates to go out.

Now, that's a very simplified version of that problem.

But that is one of the issues for councils.

Around the country, councils are struggling with their infrastructure and all sorts of issues.

And at the same time, having essentially their knees capped off by being told by the government, OK, you can't have a bed levy.

OK, we're going to cap your rates.

You're not going to get a share of GST.

Actors proposing that, for instance, councils get a share of the GST from accommodation providers.

The policies are coming thick and fast, right? And one of the really interesting ones, I thought, was National putting this line in the sand saying, no new taxes.

Right.

Which sounds great if you feel like you pay too much tax, but are there

some consequences of a call like that? Yeah, this is an election that's all about the money, right? And National clearly decided that their easiest tagline this election was going to be the no new taxes line.

The problem is, if they get back in government, what does that mean for any extra levies and charges that they may have wanted to increase? We already see, obviously, they've had to say that they won't increase the fuel tax or road user charges.

But at the same time, we've got a bill that's just passed through Parliament for time of use charging, for congestion charging, and Aucklanders in a couple of years' time might be paying to come into the city.

You pay for a toll road if you If you head up north, we've got more toll roads coming on the way.

Those are fees, levies, charges, taxes, whatever you want to call them.

And I think there is a difference between a tax and a levy.

And it's just, it feels a bit like it's a political stick for National to hit Labour with without potentially thinking it entirely through.

And at the same time, angering a lot of people around, for instance, the bed levy.

Well, that's a really interesting one because at the same time they're saying we'll introduce a rates cap and anyone who's seen their rates go up and up and up might well say, well, that's really good for my finances.

However, how do the councils raise more revenue, which they need, if both of those things are

And we could list off any issue, but let's look at Wellington right now.

We just saw the Moa Point report came out.

Wellingtonians are facing huge increasing water bills that have now been separated out from their rates.

So for the first time, they're facing those water bills.

Te Akiwai is in the gun over that because of years of underinvestment in infrastructure that people haven't wanted to pay for because they haven't wanted their rates to go out.

Now, that's a very simplified version of that problem.

But that is one of the issues for councils.

Around the country, councils are struggling with their infrastructure and all sorts of issues.

And at the same time, having essentially their knees capped off by being told by the government, OK, you can't have a bed levy.

OK, we're going to cap your rates.

You're not going to get a share of GST.

Actors proposing that, for instance, councils get a share of the GST from accommodation providers.