Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua is one step closer to a 5.7 per cent rates rise after all but one elected member recommended the 2023 draft annual plan to the council with no changes.
The council will now consider whether to adopt the plan – and set rates - at the end of the month.
The decision was made at a Rotorua Lakes Council Strategy, Policy and Finance meeting this morning.
Ten people – out of a district population of about 72,000 – provided written submissions during a one-month engagement period on the plan.
In the meeting, organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Colle said there was also a low turn-out to council-organised information sessions on the plan, including one at the library that attracted just two people.
He said the engagement had attracted mixed views with "most feedback off topic".
He suggested the committee should recommend the plan to the council with no amendments, which included a 5.7 per cent rates increase, a debt increase of about $84.4 million, and a $143m investment in infrastructure and community assets.
Colle said the organisation was likely to be "under immense pressure" in the near future because of challenges from inflation, staff retention and supply and logistics issues in part due to Covid-19.
Committee chairwoman Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said the pressures facing the organisation were "very sobering" and there would be "turbulent" times ahead.
"The organisation is under significant financial pressure. We want to complete our current plans and projects and we certainly want to be able to keep up with what we want to do into the future as well.
"It's not going to be easy.
"I really sit here and wonder ... if we're not shooting ourselves in the foot by [raising rates by 5.7].
"Other comparable cities are higher than that.
"I'm quite alarmed at what we have to do in the future and finance all of that."
The average proposed rates rise nationally is about 6.73 per cent, with the highest in Mackenzie at 17.3 per cent, and the lowest 2.5 per cent for Chatham Islands. Tauranga's proposed rates rise was 13.7 per cent, Taupō's 7.35 per cent and Whakatāne's 6.84 per cent.
In the meeting, Rotorua Lakes Community Board chairman Phill Thomass said he would give "a bit of a bouquet" to Colle for sticking to the projected 2023 rates rise in the 2021–2031 Long-term Plan.
"We've done quite well in spite of some comments from the community."
Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said in nine years in the role she'd never seen "such a small response" from the community.
"It's not an overwhelming affirmation but to only have 10 responses is amazing.
"That shows we got the balance about right.
"A negative increase on rates or pulling back on expenditure never actually carries our people forward."
Elected members voted to recommend to the council to proceed to finalising the annual plan for consideration and adoption by the council on June 30 with one against – councillor Raj Kumar.
Local Democracy Reporting is public interest journalism funded by NZ On Air
