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OCTOBER 24, 2024
Pain ahead in the rates By Mary Anne Gill
Waipā rate payers are staring down the barrel of a 17 per cent increase next year. Rents are also expected to rise across the district because of the increase. The double-digit banger will be confirmed by the council on Guy Fawke’s Day November 5 when councillors will see the impact on specific properties – rural vs residential vs commercial. The numbers will be included in the council’s Long Term Plan for consultation with the community from March and be implemented from July 1 next year. The increase should not have come as a surprise, deputy chief executive Ken Morris told councillors. Staff “really well socialised” the situation earlier this year indicating then the district was looking at double digit increases in the first three or four years of the Long Term Plan. “This is really hard for us, super, super, super hard for us,” mayor Susan O’Regan told councillors at the end of a lengthy public workshop last week. Staff threw them some sophisticated material in huge pieces of work in brief time frames which councillors had to turn around. “Most of us are not financial experts so it makes it quite a challenge,” she said. She acknowledged councillors for the dedication they were showing and the challenges they would face in their own communities.
“We’ve stuck to our principles we set really early on in this, and I think it’s really important to be guided by your principles and your values and the strategy that has been set for decades around the way this district should look into the future.” Earlier in the workshop deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk questioned O’Regan on how comfortable she was fronting a double digit increase. “Nobody wants double digit, it’s pretty clear,” said O’Regan. “I’m looking at ways it could be
softened ever so softly.” But that would not be an increase below 10 per cent because the figures showed that would not even produce a balanced budget. “It’s not just the mayor, we’ve all got to feel comfortable. I’m only one vote around this table and I think we’ve all got to feel a level of comfort in a way that makes us jointly accountable for that decision because we’ve all had a hand in getting to here and so we’ve all got to have a hand in fronting the decision to chart a course out of here,” said O’Regan.
Chief executive Steph O’Sullivan reminded councillors the Long Term Plan process was very prescriptive and if they wanted to make any more serious cuts, it would have an impact on that. Any further cuts would mean loss of jobs and reductions in services. Staff had produced a budget based on councillors’ directions last year not to reduce levels of service. “If you direct us to do it, we’ll do it,” she said but legislative timeframes would make that
difficult now. In a media release sent out last week, O’Regan said economic headwinds meant Waipā was now facing “a bit of a tornado.” Initial financial modelling showed council would need a 16.73 per cent average rates increase to make its budget work. This is despite $166.7 million of cuts being made to the proposed capital expenditure programme and a reduction of $26.9 million in operating expenditure projects over the Long Term Plan’s nine years.
Rachael rises to two
Ngaroma’s Rachael Archer has risen to number two in the world in women’s enduro racing. The Kawasaki rider was credited with a sensational display at the 2024 International Six Days Enduro which finished in Spain this week. Her team finished 10th overall in New Zealand’s first appearance at the event. Archer, 22, has been a star since moving to the United States to compete when she was just 17. As a 20-year-old she wo the Women’s Cross Country class title in the US • See Andy McGechan’s story, Page 9.
Archer was part of a three-strong New Zealand team.
Photo: Pole Position Communication.
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