Editorial: Getting Rotorua back on track

Seeing Mayor Steve Chadwick appointed is just an example of some of the changes Rotorua is taking.

You can't say the Rotorua District Council doesn't have a mandate for change, given both the result of the mayoral election and the overwhelming reaction to our story on Saturday about the parlous state of this city's finances in the face of mounting debt.

So it seems to be full steam ahead, with chief executive Geoff Williams this week proposing a major reorganisation that would see some council activities divided among four new council controlled organisations.

Ideally this would see the council focusing on its core activities and resulting in an overall more efficient machine - leading to reduced costs and a lighter burden on the ratepayers.

But that burden is already going to be a lot heavier given, as reported on Saturday, the 3 per cent annual rates increase we can expect.

This week's proposals are among the first steps on the road to 2030, by when the council hopes to have realised its long-term vision.

At first that seems like a long way off, but in reality - and given the nature of planning, financing and implementing major projects - is just a short 16 years, or five elections, away.

It's clear, given the debt situation, something major needs to happen now.

On May 22 last year we reported councillor Mike McVicker's call to axe 50 council jobs. He said a proposed 0.99 per cent average rates increase was unsustainable and would be funded by debt.

Councillor Janet Wepa said at the time the debt was in response to projects the community wanted including the airport and improved lake water quality.

She said there were several options to reduce debt, including increasing rates, cutting staff numbers or dropping major capital projects.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see all three of those options may have to come into play.

We can't have our cake and eat it too.