Tackling the rates burden a priority for council

It’s been one month since I wrote my first column, just after election night 2023, and like most people I’m a bit gobsmacked and concerned we are still being governed by a caretaker government, while three men in suits are yet to get together in the same room; its times like this the bureaucrats behind the scenes earn their keep because they are largely running the country.

On the other hand, I’m hopeful that “good things take time” as our communities, like many around the world, could really do with some relief from the cost of living crisis, famine and war.

Still on the topic of cost, this month is amply named “rates month” at the council. Our hard-working chief executive, David Langford, and his team are trying to put on positive faces while 12 councillors and the mayor are working hard behind the scenes, at workshops and meetings, to crunch draft numbers of the 2024-34 longterm plan (LTP).

With the three I’s of inflation, interest and insurance still driving the cost of living crisis, you might well imagine that the record-high 2023 average rate increase of 7.9 per cent is unlikely to be a one-year blip, particularly with the council heavily involved as a key funder in numerous significant capital projects.

These are Sarjeant Gallery, Te Puwaha (port), NZICPA (flight school), let alone considering the 2024-26 planned kerbside recycling (2024 3.2 per cent rate) and food waste (2025 1.9 per cent) and other significant impending projects, like the Dublin Street Bridge rebuild due to happen in the next few years. This is the sixth edition of a three-year LTP I have been involved in during my extensive time on the council, and it’s common for officers to project a 1-2-year higher rate increase in the first couple of years of the LTP, projecting lower rate increases thereafter, but it rarely eventuates. The 2024 LTP is no different, and I am pushing to move the implementation of recycling down the road — food waste should be optin, not compulsory. This will relieve some cost pain for ratepayers but I’m keen to hear your views. Email: Philippa.Baker-Hogan@whanganui. govt.nz