Disaster fund to help cover rates freeze
Cost-cutting measures alone are unlikely to be able to account for the Nelson City Council’s proposed rate freeze.
At a council meeting held over Zoom yesterday, a report was put forward discussing the effect of setting the 2020/2021 rates increase to zero per cent, as proposed at an extraordinary meeting of council on April 9.
The report stated while it was estimated there would $2.6 million available in potential operating savings, it would not cover the expected reduction in income of $3.3m and the $200,000 set aside for a community group emergency fund. To address the imbalance, it was proposed that money would have to be drawn down against the Disaster Recovery Fund.
Mayor Rachel Reese said there was no way to ‘‘sugar coat’’ the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, which would be felt for years.
‘‘What we’re doing is having to rebuild an alternative Annual Plan that allows us to take some financial pressure off our residents and ratepayers at the moment.
‘‘In this economic climate, with financial hardship going on across the board, there will only be a handful of families and individuals not impacted by Covid-19 [in an economic sense].’’
However, Reese said she did not want to view it as an austerity budget, with the council still able to provide an important role to stimulate employment.
‘‘This isn’t going to be a 12-month exercise, New Zealand and Nelson will be in recovery for a period of years.
‘‘That’s the approach we have to take, it musn’t be about retrenching from our community, we have to stand up with our community and support them through the recovery.’’
Currently the Disaster Relief Fund is overdrawn by $649,000, due to recent disasters in the region. The staff report said an additional $3.9m would need to be borrowed from the fund to cover the zero per cent rates increase.
The report said savings would be made across a range of different areas.
Council chief executive Pat Dougherty said some savings were simply because the lockdown had prevented council from delivering some of its capital works programme. There has also been a proposed wage freeze for staff, along with a reduction in staff travel and training budgets.
Funding for events would also be cut significantly.
There was also estimated to be a significant drop in income from a reduction in building consent and resource consent fees, parking and infringement income, and revenue from Council Controlled Trading Organisations.
Kane Hames may be an ex-All Black, but he has played more volleyball than rugby at Nelson College over the last month.
Of the more than 50 boarders in his bubble at the all boys’ school, just two played New Zealand’s national game, the former Tasman Mako prop said.
‘‘We haven’t played one bit of rugby at all.
‘‘I’ve been learning a whole lot about other sports in other countries,’’ said Hames, describing isolation with the international students, boarding staff and their families – 80 people in all – as ‘‘a blast’’. Hames started working at the day and boarding school this year, as a coach and boarding supervisor, while taking a break from professional rugby due to injury.
He lived on-site, but could have spent lockdown with flatmates in the Nelson suburb of Atawhai, he said. ‘‘I’m very grateful that I got to be here in a time like this.
‘‘The hard part is [going to be] actually accepting people back in.
‘‘Some of the staff that have been here for years are saying this is some of the best culture they’ve seen in boarding, and it’s going to be so tough to let that go.’’
The students in the bubble were all international students, or those whose family lived overseas, and were mainly from Southeast Asia. Some had initially planned to go home during the Easter holidays.
Staff had made sure there were activities that the students could take part in every day, including sport, technology challenges, meditation, cultural games and learning the school haka.
Around four hours of activities were put on on Saturdays, followed by things like barbecues.
They had ‘‘good food’’ every day and the opportunity to pursue their own hobbies on school grounds, Hames said.
Acting principal Tim Tucker said the boarders would be kept apart from day schoolers who returned to school next week.