Raj Suppiah addressed Tararua District Council on the proposed rates increase. Photo / NZME
Raj Suppiah addressed Tararua District Council on the proposed rates increase. Photo / NZME
Tararua District Council is looking to meet with community groups to consult on the Annual Plan, which proposes an average rates increase of 13.18 per cent.
In a full council meeting this week, group manager of corporate Raj Suppiah explained at length the process which brought them to the figurefor the proposed increase.
He said an initial draft of the rates increase was “quite high”, so they went back and looked at the budget, coming back with an increase slightly above 20 per cent.
He said they got direction from the council to revisit that.
“Because that’s, for want of a better word, not affordable given the current climate.”
Another revisit of the budget meant they could bring the increase back down to 16.8 per cent.
The further drop was able to be done by looking at depreciation funding and smoothing the impact on rates over a few years.
Suppiah said the financial strategy in the council’s Long Term Plan (LTP) was sometimes described as the document which sat at the heart of the plan and took into account the council’s vision and strategy.
“In the current Long Term Plan we have six strategies ... to help us realise our vision or progress towards our vision.”
The six strategies were debt repayment, increasing debt benchmarks, increasing the rates limit, exploring alternative funding streams, growing the rating base and in funding depreciation.
Suppiah said council investment in infrastructure was increasing year upon year.
The proposed rate of 13.18 per cent was significantly higher than the previous limit.
Tararua District Council is looking at alternative funding sources to reduce reliance on rates. Photo / Paul Taylor
The adoption of a pricing strategy, to reduce the reliance on rates, meaning things like user pays facilities and services, was being explored, Suppiah said.
“I think we’re progressing well toward finding an alternative source,” Suppiah said.
Suppiah said the proposed Annual Plan would see an average rates increase of around 7 to 8 per cent in the rural sector, 19 per cent in the urban sector and 20 to 21 per cent in the commercial/industrial sector.
Suppiah said one of the main drivers for that was water and wastewater - that was due to increases in costs, more compliance, the cost of treatment and chemicals, operating costs, power and capital investment.
The council was keen to engage with the community during the consultation period, open now until May 19. There will be posts on social media and information available on the council website, as well as community meetings.
