Proposal to raise WRC rates by 6% next year, bus fares 20%
The regional council is set to add a relatively modest 6% to the Waikato’s rates bills next year
But it comes on top of some more significant increases already signalled by the likes of Hamilton city (25.5%) and Waipā district (14.8%) in 2024-25.
The regional council has also signed off on plans to raise bus fares by a significantly higher 20% as part of its proposed 2024-34 long term plan.
Monday’s announcements - which followed four days of jaw boning over the long term plan last week - showed the proposed rates rise would add 6% to the bills of current ratepayers next year.
That compares to a rise of 5.4% in this current financial year. Councillors were told the latest 6% proposal was heavily influenced by a 5.7% increase in baseline costs. In a statement, chief executive Chris Mclay said: “The reality of high inflation is that we’re having to spend more to continue delivering the same services, just as we know the cost of living for our ratepayers has gone up.”
Councillors agreed to the 20% higher rate of increase for bus fares to help cover the sector’s cost rises.
But an earlier report said the extra fares revenue could also shave more than $180,000 off what the council needs to obtain through rates. That report said a 20% bus fare increase would help compensate for inflation generally, as well as the specific rising cost of public transport operations. The proposed 20% would mean, for example, that a 1 Zone Bee Card adult fare would rise from $2.00 to $2.40.
The independent chairperson of the region’s multi-agency Future Proof public transport sub-committee Bill Wasley said the proposed rise may be discussed at his group’s hui on Friday.
Asked about fare rises potentially acting as a disincentive when it comes to boosting patronage, sub-committee deputy chairperson and regional councillor Anglea Strange said: “There’s always an initial fall off whenever you increase fares.”
But she hoped, given that local fares were some of the cheapest in the country, that a 20% rise would not have much influence for long on patronage.
Strange believed a new fare capping regime proposed for youth could help maintain passenger numbers.
It would mean youth not paying for more than 6.5 trips a week as opposed to the current policy which had a 7.5 trips ceiling. “That really does reward those regular users.”
Auckland-based Public Transport Users Association chairperson Niall Robertson said there was always a balance to be struck between covering increased costs through rises and having rises drive paying passengers away.
He believed in keeping fares low to increase patronage. “That’s the better way to do it.”
Meanwhile, councillors also endorsed a draft infrastructure strategy outlining how change is needed to the way infrastructure is invested in, managed and paid for.
They heard the council’s borrowing could jump by up to $122 million over the plan’s 10-year term “with the proposed capital works programme for flood protection and drainage being the main driver”.
Over the next 50 years, it was expected more than $1 billion would be needed for the replacement of some assets, and a further $1.87 billion on ongoing operating and maintenance costs, and depreciation.
“Simply replacing or repairing assets, as we have done in the past, may no longer be economically or environmentally sustainable, affordable or workable,” said chairperson Pamela Storey in the council’s statement.
A capital works programme would focus on much needed projects to maintain and upgrade the council’s $1.2 billion worth of infrastructure assets, 15 per cent of which are reported to be in “poor or very poor” condition.