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The public is about to get a say on an issue that is worrying a growing number of home owners.
Rising council rates have prompted an inquiry, beginning with a series of open forums in the main centres.
People used to think of rates as something that paid for services like rubbish collections and libraries, but increasingly councils are looking to the public to help cover costs of major projects like roading and stadiums.
"If we're to attract international talent, international investment, we have to invest in lifestyle here. That's more than just rats, roads, rates, and rubbish," Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard says.
Once seen as a necessary evil, rates and rate rises are getting mild-mannered citizens increasingly hot under the collar and seeing them unite into anti-rates action groups.
David Thornton is one of them. "Rates have become a really big and a constant issue," he says.
He heads a ratepayers' group and wants to take councils to task.
"What are they spending our money on, and do we need it."
Rates controversy has prompted the government to launch an independent inquiry into how they are generated, used, and whether there might be a better way of funding.
Inquiry chair David Shand says some of the key questions being addressed are whether the current rating system is fair and equitable, whether there are other sources of finance that councils currently have which they could make better use of, and whether there should there be new sources of finance.
It is something even council's criticised for their rate spending are supporting.
"There's gross injustices and unfairness in the existing system, we have to have a radical overhaul," Hubbard says.
The inquiry is taking written submissions as well as the public forums - the first of which is in Hamilton on Monday, followed by one in Auckland on Tuesday.
The report is due in five months time.
"One of the reasons for the time frame of reporting by 31 July
is to allow the conclusions to feed into the debates and
discussions taking place for local body elections later this year,"
Shand says.
Ratepayers have until the end of April to have their say.
