28-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Rates rise of 9.79% splits council
Waitaki District Council's longest-serving councillor has been left annoyed and frustrated with fellow councillors' inability find further ways of reducing rates bills.
At a meeting of the Waitaki District Council this week, councillors agreed a rates rise, from next year, of 9.79%.
Cr Jim Hopkins was not impressed with the outcome of what was the final chance to make meaningful reductions before the long-term plan is finally adopted in June.
''No-one wants to spend 9%-plus on rates but none of you want to actually take a dollar off the bill — crying out loud.''
The Oamaru Freezer Building was a concern.
Cr Hopkins had suggested the building be gifted to Heritage New Zealand to be looked after by the nation, rather than ratepayers having to pay $250,000 to keep it up to safety standards.
His suggestion that the $80,000 planned to pay for demolition of aviaries at the Oamaru Public Gardens be saved by offering the work as a free project to a community group was also turned down by councillors.
''I would just say to my colleagues around the table that what you have decided in terms of the discussions previously and even today, is that every dollar, of every line item, on every page, is absolutely of essential importance and cannot be reduced or forsaken,'' Cr Hopkins said.
''I think that's untenable.
''There are discretionary items in the pages we've looked at that could and should be reconsidered and I stand by the points I've made.
''I'm disappointed the elected members won't accept the principle that if, as has been asserted by a Crown agency, the Oamaru Freezer Building is a building of national importance, there is no justification for 13,000 ratepayers to put the total cost of its upkeep.''
The council did manage to agree to a reduction of $100,000 in the budget which will have a further small reduction of about one or two tenths of a percent.
While not as big as the 10.3% rise the council originally consulted on in March, councillors have approved a proposed rates strike for its 2025-34 Long Term Plan, which will be adopted by the council in June.
Once adopted the plan will see rates rise 9.79% in 2026, then a rise of 6.5% the following year.
Rates will then be reduced from that benchmark by 16.11% in the third year of the plan, as water services are transferred to a yet-to-be-confirmed water entity that will charge ratepayers separately for services.
Following that, rate rises will remain below 4% for the following seven years.
''This has been an extremely difficult process as we juggled with many conflicting priorities, against a background of affordability challenges for our community,'' Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher said.
''We've been working on this long-term plan for around 20 months and a lot of work has gone in to reducing cost for the ratepayer.
''We started in late-2023 with a rates rise of 26% and pulled it down to 13.73%.
''Even then, cost pressures saw the draft budget increase to 16%.
''We've managed to get it down to 9.79%, which is still more than anyone would like.''
