Local Body Elections

[king1]

You should have paid more attention in Basic Economics class CT.

Basic economics are spend the money on essential services and not nice to haves. A great deal of councils blow money on everything buy essential, Wellington is a classic example, look at their aging water infrastructure with zero investment in it.

The bit that always makes me grin is how ratepayers - and yes, I used to be one once - always want more and better services from their councils, but don't want to pay for them. And, when it comes time to cast their vote to elect councillors to do the work those same ratepayers don't want a bar of doing themselves, they can't even be bothered to do that with any real research and thought.

And that is exactly why that old cliche is right, we really do get the leadership we deserve.

Any facilities should be self sustaining and be able to fund themselves.

that doesn't always work though CT, some services aren't self sustaining and can't pay for themselves but are valuable to society.  
Libraries for example, 
and I would hazard a guess that very few stadiums or sports facilities in NZ breakeven.  
local roading for example, councils have no ability to charge more from high users. 
Sewage stormwater ie wellington if they charge actual costs required, rates would probably double, but there is enormous pressure on councils to cap rates rises?

If there was an absolute mandate for all facilities to breakeven, society would lose out on a lot of services