"Let's get good data and then let's ask the questions," Mark Kilgour told the Hamilton Residents and Ratepayers Association.

They don't like the proposed rates hikes and they're not going to let them happen without a fight.

Members of the Hamilton Residents and Ratepayers Association are mobilising to challenge Hamilton City Council.

A proposal for two years of 9.5 per cent rate increases has angered the group, especially given it would be coupled with a faster switch to capital value rating and a $500 uniform annual general charge (UAGC).

About 20 members gathered at a Celebrating Age Centre lounge on Saturday morning, dropping donations for hall hire into a white bucket as they arrived.

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Mark Kilgour doubts give and take on rates changes will be "anywhere near what it should be", he told the assembly, so the association has to keep holding city council to account.

"To do this effectively, we've got to have our facts straight," he said.

"Let's get good data and then let's ask the questions."

The group has already quizzed council accountants and is now gathering members with accountancy backgrounds for a research committee, he said.

Kilgour, a University of Waikato marketing lecturer, sees the issue as being how council money is spent, not how much is collected.

He queried spending on the CEO's pay, plants, paving, and FMG Waikato Stadium.

"You can't stop it, can you?" a woman in the audience interjected. "All those submissions were just a joke."

Later in the meeting, a man in the crowd called out to ask whether this was all about council collecting more rates so it could get "a crapload more debt".

More rates would make for a stronger balance sheet, according to council information on the long-term plan, association treasurer Tony Dixon said.

But the next sentence in the document was about being able to borrow more for "the infrastructure the city needs to grow, improvements to our transport system, and some community projects".

The association is forming two subcommittees, president Mischele​ Rhodes said - one for research and another for communications.

It's also after someone with art skills.

"If anybody is good at drawing cartoons or knows anybody who could draw us some cartoons ... just put your feelers out there," she said.

City Councillor Siggi Henry was the only elected member at the meeting.