Campaigning spilled over in the council chambers this week with one councillor attacking another over rates cap campaign statements.

Councillor Larry Baldock challenged the accuracy of Rick Curach's election postcard, where he claims councillors were forced to support his call for a two per cent cap on rates increases.

Councillor Larry Baldock and Rich Curach debated the rates cap in council chambers this week.

Larry, who voted for the rates cap when it was passed in January 2012, says no one was forced to vote for the rates cap, and that the rates cap was one of several options available to council.

Limiting rates increases was a government requirement, that chairman Bill Faulkner described at the time as the 'Rodney Hide memorial clause”. It is a legal requirement but it is not binding on the council, and is a ‘feel good' thing, Bill said at the time.

Councillor Catherine Stewart tried to stop Larry yesterday with a point of order saying Larry's accusation is inappropriate because of the looming local body elections.

Bill overruled her, saying it wasn't a point of order, but when Rick tried to respond to Larry, Bill shut him down saying it was partly for that reason.

Asked today what he would have said, Rick says he would have firstly congratulated Larry for supporting the rates cap, otherwise it wouldn't have gone through.

'It was a six-five vote in the end,” says Rick. 'But other than that; jeepers, he's grasping at straws if that's the only dirt he can find.

'I was quite surprised with his attempt to discredit me. I suppose what I though it was, he was trying to down play the government. Rodney Hide asked for a rate cap and the government introduced this watered down rate cap where they required us to set financial limits on rate increases, which is basically saying ‘put in a rate cap'.

'I think that's probably the motive. Just a little poke at government to downplay what I think was a good initiative to try and control council spending.”

The Government's change to the Local Government Act requiring councils to place limits on rates increases came after Rick had made two or three previous attempts to introduce a rates limit at Tauranga City Council.

'Larry says three times, definitely two. This certainly helped.

'He says I shouldn't use the word force, which is strictly correct because it didn't force members to support a rates cap. But it did force members to put some financial limit on rate increases or put some limit on rate increases. So it's splitting hairs really.”

The SunLive story on the rates cap is here: