Foster ‘must provide certainty’ over rates
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster has been called on to ‘‘cut through the red tape’’ and freeze rates immediately as residents battle the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The city council will next week discuss a proposed rates rise of up to 9.2 per cent for residential and commercial property owners, although a 5.9 per cent increase, or a rates freeze, are also possibilities.
City councillor Fleur Fitzsimons said people needed certainty sooner rather than later over their rates bills, and it was up to Foster to provide that.
‘‘Mayor Foster likes to have all the details before he makes a decision but we do not have the luxury of that approach here. We need clear, decisive leadership.
‘‘We will need to borrow more. The council must take a compassionate approach to how and when the rates are paid.’’
The council needed to invest in support for businesses and residents during and after the coronavirus outbreak, and create jobs by bringing forward projects such as the Let’s Get Wellington Moving transport programme, Fitzsimons said.
‘‘Households and businesses are struggling with the impacts of Covid-19 and need to know the rates bill they will face.’’
Councillor Diane Calvert agreed Foster needed to take the lead and order rates be frozen for the 2020-21 financial year.
‘‘We need to make the sharp decision, and the mayor’s got more power than the rest of us to do that.’’
It’s understood the council would need to cut $30 million from its budget to freeze rates completely, but Calvert said it should start from that point and work backwards.
Up to 40 per cent of Wellingtonians could not work from home during the nationwide lockdown and would need financial support, Calvert said.
Foster said the council was working through a plan on how to reduce forecast rates rises, and hoped some decisions would be made soon.
In the meantime, the council was proposing to waive the late penalty for the final rates bill of the 2019-20 financial year, due on June 1.
It’s understood the window for that payment could be extended by up to six months.
‘‘We want to try and avoid having any adverse impact on any people suffering,’’ Foster said.
‘‘How we will do this is something which we will talk about over the next week and a half.’’
Public consultation on projects such as Planning for Growth and the redevelopment of Te Nga¯ kau Civic Square could be done without face-to-face feedback, Foster said.
Meanwhile, the council has gained central government approval to conduct meetings and cast votes via audi-visual link, rather than in person.
Local Government New Zealand president Dave Cull said he was in favour of councils freezing or lowering rates through borrowing, as central government had recently done.
‘‘We’re very conscious of the need to reduce the burden on our ratepayers under the circumstances. If that means freezing rates – that’s the obvious conclusion.’’
Councils considering even small rates rises should reduce those to at least the rate of previous years, Cull said.
But he said it was important to distinguish between spending and funding.