Latest news with #Gyenge
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Tauranga Rally Urges City Council To Cut Rates Amid Proposed 12% Hike
About 250 people attended a rally at Tauranga's Memorial Park urging the city council to reduce rates. Act list MP Cameron Luxton spoke to the crowd before they marched to The Strand in the city centre on Sunday. Rally organiser Jan Gyenge wanted Tauranga City Council to find $40 million in savings because she said the proposed 12% rates increase was 'unsustainable'. If the council could save $40m it could deliver a 0% residential rate increase, she told Local Democracy Reporting before the event. Gyenge said the rally went well and there was great engagement from the attendees. The crowd stopped outside the new council offices on Devonport Rd and sported signs asking council to 'stop the spend' and 'respect ratepayers'. The rally was not the end but a platform for people to share their concerns, Gyenge said. Last week the council heard from submitters on its Annual Plan for 2025/26. The plan received 968 written submissions and 96 people asked to speak to the council directly. The council would deliberate on its Annual Plan on May 26. Mayor Mahé Drysdale previously said the plan tried to strike a balance between investing in the city and affordability for ratepayers. The council had already found $29m in savings to get to 12%, and was working to find more to get the final number down to 10% or lower. - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
NZ Herald
20-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Tauranga rally urges city council to cut rates amid proposed 12% hike
The crowd stopped outside the new council offices on Devonport Rd and sported signs asking council to 'stop the spend' and 'respect ratepayers'. The rally was not the end but a platform for people to share their concerns, Gyenge said. Last week the council heard from submitters on its Annual Plan for 2025/26. The plan received 968 written submissions and 96 people asked to speak to the council directly. The council would deliberate on its Annual Plan on May 26. Mayor Mahé Drysdale previously said the plan tried to strike a balance between investing in the city and affordability for ratepayers. The council had already found $29m in savings to get to 12%, and was working to find more to get the final number down to 10% or lower.
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Residents rally against Tauranga rates increase, demand spending cuts
It was 4.8 times inflation of 2.5%, which was 'unconscionable,' Gyenge said. 'People are doing it really tough, it's just not sustainable.' The rally wasn't about asking the councillors to listen, but expecting them to act differently when they voted on expenditure, Gyenge said. She said she wanted them to reduce their appetite for spending. 'It's about the whole organisation becoming lean and mean and fully efficient with absolutely no wasted cents at all.' Gyenge looked at the council's financials and said finding an extra $40m in savings would avoid the need to increase residential rates. Mayor Mahé Drysdale told her during an Annual Plan submission hearing it would take $80m in savings to avoid a rates rise. Gyenge said the rally was needed to draw the community together and provide an outlet for people unable to take part in the hearings. 'It's not an isolated event. It's the beginning of the community saying 'this is what we think'. It'll be a platform for the community.' Consultation on the council's draft Annual Plan ran from March 28 to April 28. Hearings for submitters were on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tim Maltby, chairman of Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association, said there was a lot of worry and anger in the community about council spending and rates increases. Most people's wages increased in line with inflation at about 3% but a rates increase of 12% was unaffordable, he said. 'We believe that the council vastly overspends. 'If council was reorganised and restructured so that it was running properly and doing its job properly, there would be no need for a rates increase.' It was 'totally unrealistic' to expect a zero rates increase this year, Maltby said. 'If the elected members wanted to, they could force a restructure that would drastically reduce costs and it would be quite feasible to have a 0% rates increase [in future].' Drysdale said the Annual Plan tried to strike a balance between investing in the city and affordability for ratepayers. 'The real challenge is we have a huge infrastructure deficit. We've got to be mindful of that when we're prioritising our money.' The council found $29m in savings to lower the rates rise from 20% to 12%, he said. The councillors had given the organisation direction to reduce costs across its operations to keep rates down, Drysdale said. Disestablishing 100 roles was part of this, he said. 'I can assure the people of Tauranga that elected members are working hard to find savings, which would reduce the average rates increase for 2025/26 to 10%, or lower.' To achieve a 0% residential rates rise, $80m in savings would need to be found, he said. 'Taking $80m out of a business our size in one year is actually nigh impossible.' Feedback the council received during the Annual Plan consultation ranged from people saying facilities were not meeting the needs of the community to concern about rates, Drysdale said. There were 968 written submissions and 96 people asked to speak at the hearings. Final decisions would be made after Annual Plan deliberations on May 26, he said.
