Council seeks resident nod for 8.9% rates rise

The Hamilton City Council will ask ratepayers to give the thumbs up to what amounts to a total 8.9 per cent increase on their rates bill.

That figure is made up of a 4.4 per cent increase in the general rate, plus what has been dubbed a ‘‘compliance targeted rate’’ that is equivalent to an additional 4.5 per cent increase.

That latter figure is to shoulder the cost of the Government’s ‘‘three waters’’ reforms, as well as some district plan costs – neither of which the council has any choice in – and is calculated to be roughly about $140 per occupied or inhabited property.

The council is currently lobbying the Government to take more of a share of the three waters costs – the amount of the targeted rate increase could decrease by the time the council strikes the rate in the middle of next year.

At one point councillors were contemplating up to six separate targeted rates covering such things as walking, cycling and public transport; community attractions; restoring the city’s gullies and responding to climate change; and projects in the central city.

However, an amendment devised by councillor Dave Macpherson reincorporated these back into the base budget and the general rate.

The 11th-hour adjustment came at the end of two long days of discussion, argument, bickering, mirth and angst around the council table, as the politicians were forced to reign in some of their spending plans to make way for the impact of the Three Waters costs.

‘‘We have really tried collectively to push back on the spend, to make the burden on ratepayers easier,’’ remarked mayor Paula Southgate, as councillors moved to incorporate the rates increases into the draft plan.

‘‘I think there’s been a lot of dollars deferred, and we managed to stop this from being an outright horror show,’’ declared deputy mayor Geoff Taylor.

At the start of the whittling process, councillors were looking at a combined 11.3 per cent hike in rates bills.

Under the council’s draft long term plan, both the general rates and targeted rate will increase by 4.9 per cent annually from year 2 (2022).

The plan would also see the council balancing its books (everyday revenues paying for everyday costs) in 2023-24, with its net-debt-to-revenue ratio reaching a maximum of 280 per cent in 2026-27.

And it also proposes resetting the netdebt-to-revenue ratio limit from the current 230 per cent to align with the Local Government Funding Agency limit of 300 per cent for 2021/22, decreasing by 5 per cent each year until 2025/26 then remaining at 280 per cent.

Public consultation on the draft plan will run from early March to early April, with the final plan being adopted in June.

Meanwhile, an attempt by Cr Ewan Wilson to slice $125,000 out of the mayoral support services operational budget was soundly rejected by all of his council colleagues.

The figure accounts for the salary of a communications consultant employed by the mayor’s office, which has a total annual budget of $482,000.

Wilson, who was tuning in to the council meeting from Canada, argued that the consultant’s job could easily be done by the council’s in-house communications and engagement team.

‘‘This could be a savings generator,’’ he said.

Chief executive Richard Briggs said the budget and number of staff in the mayor’s office had slowly been reduced during his eight years with the council, from five down to three. The budget was ‘‘probably lean’’ compared to similar councils around the country, he said.

Taylor said he ‘‘vehemently opposed’’ Wilson’s motion.

‘‘The workload in that mayor’s office . . . is mindboggling. I’ve seen the mayor work herself to a standstill.

‘‘We have really tried collectively to push back on the spend’’

Mayor Paula Southgate