Visitor levy to hit $10 then $15
A STEWART Island business might not collect a visitor levy if it went to $15, a councillor warned yesterday.
However, the levy would initially go to $10 next year before moving to $15 in 2025.
After a lengthy debate yesterday, the Southland District Council decided Stewart Island visitors would pay a $10 visitor levy from October 2023, which would increase to $15 in October 2025.
Four options were presented to council: increase the $5 levy to $10; increase it to $15; keep it at $5 or decide on another amount.
But Cr Darren Frazer confused the council meeting when he suggested introducing a sliding scale levy, catching councillors and staff unaware, as it had never been presented as an option by either staff or submitters.
Cr Frazer suggested an increase over a period. He suggested it start at $10 and increase by $1 a year over a period.
Several options that were fielded via the submission process included no increase, rises to $10 or $15, or different levies in different seasons.
Council staff said any rise needed to be justified.
Cr Frazer suggested if $15 could be justified, as could a sliding scale rise.
Deputy Mayor Ebel Kremer ordered a recess after he reprimanded staff for conflicting advice on legality they were providing.
‘‘I am getting two different signals from that table . . . You guys need to have a bit of chat and make sure you are all on the same page,’’ he said.
Southland district councillor, and Stewart Island resident, Bruce Ford said the community had expressed genuine concern a levy change would affect visitor numbers and hoped the council would honour its wish for a $10 levy.
Cr Ford said one of the collection agents had said they would refuse to collect the levy if it rose to $15.
In hindsight, a regular review would have been a better approach and recommended that be done in the future, he said. The levy is not collected from island residents or visitors under18.
Reviews of less than fiveyearly, would be ‘‘inefficient’’ as any review was a 12month process through the council system, Cr Ford said.
Council research data had revealed the current $5 levy, introduced in 2013, would be insufficient to fund future visitorrelated activities. Any costs not covered by the levy would need to be covered by ratepayers.
Submissions had expressed concern an increased levy might deter visitors to the island. The majority of them favoured an increase to $10.