While National has made \u201cno new taxes\u201d a key election pledge, Bradford points out that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean households won\u2019t face other new costs. For example, the legislative path has already been cleared for time-of-use congestion charging.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou pay for a toll road if you head up north. We\u2019ve got more toll roads coming on the way. Those are fees, levies, charges, taxes \u2013 whatever you want to call them,\u201d Bradford says, pointing out \u201cthere is a difference between a tax and a levy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both Labour and National have also pledged to delay increases in the fuel excise tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone loves to talk about the potholes\u201d Bradford says. \u201cBut guess what happens if you don\u2019t have money in a road maintenance fund? The road doesn\u2019t get maintained.\u201d <\/p>\n
National\u2019s proposed cap on council rates might sound good to ratepayers, but if councils have less ability to generate revenue, Bradford says the alternative could be more user-pays services \u2013 or fewer services altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to pay to go to the library? Do you want to pay to use the toilets in the parks? Do you want to pay for your rubbish and recycling to be picked up? It might be that your project you were hoping to have … for your town, your city, your neighborhood, won\u2019t be happening now because there is not enough money to pay for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s sweeteners include free GP visits and prescriptions and solar subsidies \u2013 with some of its promises funded by its proposed capital gains tax on investment property.<\/p>\n
Bradford says tying the tax to popular spending promises is \u201csmart politics\u201d but wonders whether the revenue is becoming oversubscribed given the number of promises attached to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is … they really might not get the amount of money they were hoping for, depending on what happens with the housing market.\u201d <\/p>\n
With both major parties promising financial relief, Bradford says voters need to consider what happens further down the track. \u201cUnfortunately, it has to be paid for some way.\u201d <\/p>\n
Watch or listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n The Prosperity Project is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and financial adviser.<\/p>\n Follow the show at iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While National has made \u201cno new taxes\u201d a key election pledge, Bradford points out that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[95,1975,9442,50372,6434,10001,55996,4187,5205,5903,5821,4975,71,134,527,1043,4188,13457,111,139,69,1118,90,2954,18154,3263,30503,15483,20586,3109,7676,4166,151783,7496,2373,223,165,9873,112,28355,8238,14450,24687],"class_list":["post-592432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-and","tag-at","tag-better","tag-capped","tag-cheaper","tag-closer","tag-convince","tag-cost","tag-council","tag-election","tag-everything","tag-free","tag-from","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-leadership","tag-living","tag-look","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-parties","tag-political","tag-project","tag-promises","tag-promising","tag-prosperity","tag-public","tag-rates","tag-solar","tag-subsidised","tag-tax","tag-taxes","tag-the","tag-their","tag-theyll","tag-transport","tag-trying","tag-under","tag-visits","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}