The lobby group says the pledge is a way for voters to assess candidates’ priorities, although many of Dunedin’s mayoral candidates have said it is misinformed and impractical.
Mayoral candidate Marie Laufiso said the pledge was a simplistic dog-whistle, designed to appeal to anti-Māori voters.
Last week, the Taxpayers’ Union announced it had asked all mayoral and council candidates nationwide to sign a "ratepayer protection pledge" to show commitment on three key issues: keeping council rates below inflation and population growth, supporting council transparency and opposing unelected appointments to committees with spending or regulatory powers.
The Otago Daily Times asked Dunedin’s mayoral candidates for their thoughts on the pledge.
Cr Laufiso said she had received eight emails over five days asking her to sign it.
One email, from retired broadcaster and group financial backer Peter Williams, had the subject: "you have two days", she said.
"While I am disinclined to agree in any way with the [Taxpayers’ Union], such bullying and intimidation tactics definitely do not endear them to me."
Cr Laufiso said the pledge was "misinformed and simplistic dog-whistling designed by the powerful and wealthy to appeal to the not so wealthy Māori-hating-and-blaming element in our adolescent settler society".
Future Dunedin candidate Andrew Simms said in the past week, he had been asked 17 times to sign it, "with an increasingly urgent tone and unsubstantiated claims that the majority of voters are in support".
"The bombarding of candidates in the manner that the Taxpayers Union has chosen falls somewhere between badgering candidates through to bullying."
The pledge was "illogical, unworkable and divisive, and will achieve nothing" — he would not sign it, Mr Simms said.
Taxpayers’ Union head of communications Tory Relf rejected any suggestion the group was bullying or badgering candidates.
Recent Taxpayers’ Union-Curia polling showed "a vast majority" of New Zealanders supported rates caps; it was disingenuous to say the group’s claims were unsubstantiated, Ms Relf said.
The group had sent three reminder emails and encouraged supporters to contact their local candidates, which they were "more than entitled" to do, she said.
In reply to a Taxpayers’ Union email, Mayoral candidate Lee Vandervis said although he supported parts, he would not sign it — "a rates cap without a debt cap is moronic".
Sophie Barker said it was unrealistic to expect councillors to commit to the pledge, especially those who might have signed without understanding council systems.
Green Party candidate Mickey Treadwell said the pledge was "nonsense" and those who signed it might breach impartiality rules.
Candidates Zenith Rose-Wills, Doug Hall, Flynn Nisbett all said they had received several emails asking them to sign the pledge, which they did not plan to do.
Pamela Taylor and Benedict Ong both said they supported the pledge. David Milne said he had signed it with amendments — councils were required to provide avenues for Māori participation "which I abide by".
• Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich, Carmen Houlahan, Mandy Mayhem, Lianna MacFarlane and Lync Aronson did not provide responses by deadline.
