Expensive rates plan passes its first test

Nearly $100 million worth of spending on ambitious projects for Palmerston North over the next decade have been labelled unaffordable, as the council proposes a sharp rates hike.

City councillor Karen Naylor led a solo attempt to slash the spending plan that would see rates rise 6.4 per cent in 2018/19.

She told the committee of council meeting on Wednesday she supported the council’s vision to be ambitious, but she was uncomfortable about the effect of rates rises on the community.

‘‘There are very few people receiving 6 per cent wage increases and already I’ve had significant feedback from people concerned that the proposed spend is unreasonable.

‘‘We need to be ambitious for all our community, including those with financial limitations.’’

But at the end of a long day of meetings, five councillors were missing for the final vote on whether to approve sending the draft plan and supporting documents to Audit New Zealand ahead of starting public consultation, leaving her without someone to second her recommendations.

Cr Lew Findlay said he would have supported her bid, but had to leave for another appointment.

‘‘It is nice to have the good things, but if people have to go without breakfast to pay for it... is it worthwhile?’’

Findlay said people needed to make submissions and tell the council what they thought of the rates rise.

There would be opportunities to pare back the rates rise after public consultation, he said.

The forecast rates increases over the decade add up to 50 per cent, and that was not taking into account the effect of increases upon increases.

Naylor said the council was not only proposing to change its earlier benchmarks for how much debt and what level of rates rises were acceptable, it was then proposing to breach those new limits.

Projects Naylor proposed to leave out, defer or prune back included a $2.2m new community hub for Kelvin Grove, $17.9m toward the Te Manawa upgrade, the $9.2m southern grandstand for Central Energy Trust Arena, the $7.7m Central Library upgrade and city centre streetscape improvements.

The draft plan will also ask the community for views on whether the council should start paying all of its staff the living wage from 2019/20.

Councillors debated the proposal behind closed doors earlier in the day, knowing the decision would affect how much money it had to put in its budget for paying its staff in future.

The recommendation passed narrowly, by nine votes to seven.

The council is expected to endorse the audited consultation material on March 5. Submissions close on April 23, and hearings in May.

Naylor was the only councillor to vote against approving the papers. Those who had already left the meeting and did not vote were Findlay, Aleisha Rutherford, Rachel Bowen, Gabrielle Bundycooke and Vaughan Dennison.