Plan pushed back two months

A meeting for councillors to make big calls about Hamilton’s next decade has been pushed back almost two months.

Hamilton City councillors were due to discuss the city’s draft longterm plan – including the mayor’s proposed budget – today. The meeting will now be held on December 6 to give the mayor and council staff more time to grapple with money matters.

‘‘Basically, what I’m saying is we’re not ready,’’ Hamilton Mayor Andrew King said.

‘‘We’ve got huge challenges on making the books balance and that’s where all my energies are going, to ensure that I deliver a balanced budget but ensure that we’re being responsible to the ratepayers as well,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s very, very difficult for us to make it work on the revenue that we have got. People are saying they don’t want services cut. Well, if we’re not going to cut services, and people still want the same level of service, we have then got to look at revenue. It’s something I’m taking very seriously. I also know there are struggling families out there.’’

The average Hamilton rate is about $500 lower than in Tauranga, he said.

Council’s long-term plan is due to be adopted in June 2018 and King said the meeting shift won’t affect that timeline.

The December 6 date was already allocated for 10-Year Plan discussion so councillors will be available, he said, and it will give him time to incorporate their feedback.

Councillors have been attending briefings in the months leading up to long-term plan deliberations, and rapid growth and the need for more income – probably through increased rates – have been a recurring theme. October was an ambitious target for signing off a draft plan, Cr Dave Macpherson said.

‘‘The earliest I’ve seen is about mid-February. I was surprised that they thought they could do it this early.’’

He understood council staff had been scrambling to get the plan ready for October, and said the later meeting date would still allow for a longer than usual consultation period.

The long-term plan is also referred to as the 10-Year Plan, is reviewed every three years, and sets out council’s priorities for the next decade. Last time council approved a long-term plan, in 2015, it was with a slim majority and after more than three hours of heated debate - including a walkout.

Cr Garry Mallett agreed with the delay this time around.

‘‘It’s not perfect but we’re better to be right than to be fast, I think. There’s an awful lot at stake in this one. There’s a whole lot of analysis going on.’’

It’s too important to get wrong, Cr Paula Southgate said, and it wasn’t going to go out to the public until early 2018.

‘‘I think, had it come out on Monday, it would have been the world’s longest council meeting on Thursday because there was such a lot of conversation going on about levels of funding and how things might be rated for.’’

A draft plan is scheduled to be adopted in December, will go to public consultation and hearings early next year and is due to be adopted by June 2018.