ES to increase rates by 5.9pc
Environment Southland ratepayers will be hit with a rates hike of nearly 6 per cent in 2017-18.
Chairman Nicol Horrell cited the ‘‘significant demands’’ being placed on Environment Southland by central government, particularly in the environmental space, when announcing the rates hike.
The overall rates increase for the 2017-18 year would be 5.9 per cent, equating to $873,857, Horrell said.
This was below the forecast increase of 6.64 per cent in the Long-term Plan, which was adopted last week.
Horrell said the council, when setting the rates, was mindful of the challenging economic climate and the significant demands being placed on it by central govern- ment, particularly in the freshwater space.
‘‘We are doing a lot of science and we have got this [Southland Water and Land] plan change going through so the cost of doing all those things is quite significant and it’s something we have to do,’’ Horrell said.
‘‘Central government is telling us to do it but they don’t normally write the cheques as well.’’
The final cost of the Water and Land Plan had not been determined but it was significant and the costs would run into the 2017-18 year.
Councillors started off rates discussions at 10.5 per cent, ‘‘and we said that’s not going to fly’’, Horrell said.
‘‘There’s been some reasonably serious pruning going on.
‘‘We have said to the CEO and staff we want your budgets pruned to the bare minimum.’’
The regional council had run at a surplus in the past few years and ratepayers were doing it tough, so the council wanted rates to keep
ES rates hikes in past decade:
rates as low as possible, Horrell said.
The council had spent a lot of money on doing the science around water quality issues in the last few years but that spend was now trending down.