And New Zealand’s longest-serving mayor is still struggling to understand the rationale behind the direction they are taking local democracy.
Mr Shadbolt told the Otago Daily Times his community had built up $212million in assets, including a council-owned airport, forestry and electricity companies, over the years.
Together, those investments now pumped $5million a year back into the council’s coffers, helping offset rates by 5% each year.
They would also open the door to a council-controlled organisation (CCO) such as Auckland’s Watercare, where costs have continued to climb, he said.
"When you look at the water costs for Auckland ratepayers ... the price of water has risen dramatically."
Mr Shadbolt said he was not against efficiency if the case for change was "evidence-based", but that was lacking so far.
Without it, the Invercargill City Council had made its opposition to reduced community control clear, by taking out a full-page newspaper advertisement calling for Southlanders to unite against the changes.
Mr Shadbolt said the reforms were part of a "one-way journey of centralisation" coming from Wellington.
The "gossip" within local government was of a longer-term vision to reduce the number of local authorities from 78 to seven, but the constant upheaval meant it was hard to tell exactly what the goal was, he said.
"We hardly get bedded down with a system and ‘boom’, along comes another system supposedly to make us more efficient.
"You just get a minister of local government who’s been in the job a couple of months and tells us how to run our city."
