Democracy HQ A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

Tauranga ratepayers have invested heavily in three waters infrastructure. Now the government wants to buy $1.3 billion worth of your assets for just $48m.

The council receives $68.6m in revenue from these assets each year; could this be the worst deal since the days of guns and blankets for land?

There was $200m for the Waiari water treatment plant, $100m for the Southern Pipeline and hundreds of millions in stormwater upgrades over the last 15 years. Tauranga ratepayers have invested heavily in stormwater, clean treated sewage and some of the best drinking water in New Zealand.

The government's advertising campaign, showing raw sewage coming out of taps and a child covered in it while swimming, isn't fooling anyone.

Likewise, nobody believes the Department of Internal Affairs when they say it'll save us money. Council staff can't even verify DIA's numbers. Furthermore, Tauranga ratepayers will be forced to subsidise upgrades in other towns, from Taranaki to East Cape.

All the while, locals will have no say in how our money is spent.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith sums it up nicely, saying: 'Ratepayers of each district on the coast will struggle with the concept of having their assets taken and being billed with large increases from the water regulator. Bills they will have no control over, where at present elections bring about accountability.”

Two councils have pulled out of discussions already, citing no value for ratepayers, with more likely to follow. Tauranga's commissioners are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Legally they are accountable to Nanaia Mahuta, but morally they are accountable to ratepayers.