The Relativity of Rates
local government for a connected world
mark rickerby, http://maetl.coretxt.net.nz

Wellington, 2007
Residential rates for properties are based on
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their current market value
30 years ago you could have bought a house in
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city suburbs for $80,000-$200,000
That house may now be worth over $500,00
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Rates will have increased to reflect this – but
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your usage of infrastructure and local services
may not have changed at all!

What is happening?
The ratio between commercial and residential
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rates is changing
Currently, commercial properties pay $4.2 for
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every $1 paid by residential properties
That ratio is changing to $2.8 to $1
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Less commercial money in the kitty!
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Prospect of 50% of residential rates to service
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council debts over the next 7 years

Where do rates go?
Find out!
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http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/rates/search/search.html
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How much do we really know?
Ratepayers are faceless account numbers
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What does the Base General Rate go towards?
–

Open residential data
The history of every property on every street
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is listed and mapped...

Homogenized locality
... but every property is treated in the same
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generic way
The WCC website is a fantastic resource but
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completely un(der) personalized
Where does the Base General Rate go again?
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Are residents customers?
The Council has a monopoly – you must pay
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rates
Council rates policy is focused on their own
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strategic objectives
But what about the strategic objectives of
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residents?
Democratically, the Council should be
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accountable to residents

Investing in locality
Residents need to have more say in how their
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general rates are being spent
Democracy doesn't have to be just about
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voting every three years
Residents should be able to see direct returns
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in their local area
Potential for 1-4% of the base general rate to
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be directed towards localized community
funds

Decentralizing regional investment
Residents of individual streets or housing
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clusters could have a choice in how a portion
of their rates gets spent
Enabling infrastructure upgrades, street
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plantings, installations, sculptures, suburban
libraries
Collect ideas from residents for community
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projects they want in their area
Allow them to filter % of their rates towards
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these funds

Decentralizing regional investment
These ideas need the web if they are to work
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effectively
Residents could log in to a “MyStreet”
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account
Precise visual breakdown of their rates
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charges
Tools for directing a part of their annual
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payment towards community projects of their
choice

Community
This isn't just the cliché of a web community,
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it's an actual community of neighbourhoods
Awareness of local issues
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Awareness of who is who in a suburb
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Civil defence networks
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one day, Wellington is going to need this
–
Uses the web in a read-write capacity, not
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database silos or static information pages

Property development
Lengthy resource consent process, long list of
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disputes between property owners
Window rights! Should property owners have
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a say in retaining the outlook of their building?
Public access to development and extension
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proposals - informs owners of planned
development in their location
Resolve conflicts before they even start
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Socially networked urban planning
Would urban planners, council
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representatives, property developers,
architects, and residents actually be able to
communicate and co-operate effectively?
That's unlikely – but in this case, the means
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are the ends
On the web, public processes are much more
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visible - nothing gets lost in the paperwork
Increasing awareness through access
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MyStreet: digital neighbourhoods
The Council already has the data and the
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platform, just not the interface
Each location has specific concerns beyond the
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general issues facing all Wellingtonians
Online spaces provide the possibility for
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collaboratively solving these concerns

MyStreet: answering questions
Personalize it!
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Who are my neighbours?
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What is the state of the infrastructure in my
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neighbourhood?
What planned developments are there in my
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neighbourhood?
What projects can I contribute to?
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Where to start...
Bottom-up vs Top-down organization?
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Baby steps...
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Map ratepayers accounts to personalized
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online services
Bubble up data from various information silos
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City wide survey of residents opinions on
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e-government

Thank you!
http://www.wellington.govt.nz
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http://maetl.coretxt.net.nz/local-govt-for-connected-world
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http://lightboxgallery.net.nz/words/the-relativity-of-rates/
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