Challenges ahead for Waipa¯
Hopefully a large number of you are aware the council is consulting on its Annual Plan for the 22/23 financial year. This is the second year of our 10 Year Plan 21/31 and there are only limited changes being proposed but it provides an opportunity for the community to let us know whether we’re on the right track.
The council and staff have worked hard to keep rates increases at or below the forecast 4.4 per cent and we are pleased to confirm the average rate increase in our draft Annual Plan is 4.3 per cent before considering any community submissions.
This outcome is extremely pleasing in the current high inflationary financial climate and taking account of international influences such as Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, and supply chain issues to name just a few. To compound these inflationary challenges, local government is continually being bombarded by legislated reforms by central government which will impact on all of us and seriously change the form and function of local service delivery and community decision making.
The proposed changes are so extensive that it is hard to encourage prospective candidates to stand for the upcoming local government elections without knowing what the job description may entail and what commitment is required.
The long list of current reforms including, but not limited to: Three Waters; resource management; emergency management; building control; biodiversity preservation; and, climate change, all have elements of further regionalisation or centralisation thus moving the accountability further away from the community affected.
Already central government is responsible for 90 per cent of public expenditure with local government at 10 per cent, this is one of the largest discrepancies in the OECD. And despite central government’s continual political point scoring about rate increases, the percentage of GDP spent on rates has remained relatively static for over 100 years whilst the increase in Government taxation, when graphed, looks like the increase in Covid-19 cases with no indication that it has peaked.
Despite the Three Waters Reform being proposed by central government, the council is continuing to invest heavily in our Three Waters infrastructure to ensure, whatever the outcome of the reform, that our community receives high-quality drinking water and improved environmental outcomes.
I was delighted that the new water treatment plant at Parallel Rd and trunk main bringing water from the Waikato River to Te Awamutu resolved the water shortages over the summer months and the whole district avoided any water restrictions this year. The next really significant project is the upgrade of the Cambridge Wastewater Treatment Plant and planning and design is well under way to lift the level of treatment to modern best-practice and cater for the growth in Cambridge and surrounds.
The council is also continuing to work with Communities 4 Local Democracy, a collective of nearly half of the councils in the country, to achieve better outcomes from the Three Waters reform as it is widely believed the four water entities model being proposed will not deliver the improvements being promised and will significantly increase costs and reduce accountability to our communities.