Taxpayers’ Union slams eye-watering Hastings rates hike
The Taxpayers’ Union has described the Hastings District Council’s proposed 25 percent rates hike as “eye-watering”.
The Hastings District Council will consult the public on its Long Term Plan for 2024-2034, including an unprecedented proposed average rates increase of 25 percent for the next financial year.
This comes as council consultation documents reveal that the Council’s overall debt, thanks to Cyclone recovery and other costs, is set to peak at $701m.
Responding to the news, the Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “We get that cyclone recovery and investing in resilient infrastructure will obviously be front of mind but the Council must ensure that it does not make the process more painful than it needs to be by using the cyclone as a shield to justify eye-watering rates hikes when there is still plenty of fat to trim.”
“Many families are still dealing with the effects of the cyclone too. Hiking rates by an eye-watering 25% is simply unthinkable. With the council spending $9 million more on staff salaries compared to 2019 and more than a quarter of its staff earning above $100,000 per year, there is plenty of room for back office savings rather than heaping extra costs onto struggling ratepayers.”
“After doing everything possible to cut back the size of the rates hike, the council must ensure that every cent goes into core service delivery, rather than expensive vanity projects like its recent $70,000 logo redesign.”
At a meeting yesterday, the Council adopted the long term plan for public consultation. This includes a proposed rates rise of 25 percent for 2024/25, followed by 15 percent rate increase the year after and a 10 percent increase in year three. It’s proposed that from years four to 10, the rating increase reduces to four per cent in the greater urban area, and to seven per cent in the rural area.
In response to the Taxpayers’ Union’s criticism, the Hastings District Council Chief Executive Nigel Bickle said: “We have not shied away from the fact that 17 per cent of the proposed rate increase is not related to the cyclone.”
“The fact is we are in an environment of high inflation which is driving insurance cost increases, and the rising cost of labour and materials. All councils around the country are facing this reality, which is reflected in double-figure rate increase proposals around the country.”
Bickle says that this LTP’s focus is on the cyclone recovery and our core services including infrastructure maintenance and renewal.
“We are looking closely at where savings can be made and are proposing to cut out the nice-to-haves where we have invested heavily in the last few years – our city centre, parks, walking and cycling paths.”
“We also intend to identify another $2.7m in savings in year one of the plan, and have made a commitment to look for further savings in the second year.”
“Council has had to react to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle in the past 12 months which has seen Council staff numbers increase. It is expected that those numbers will begin to drop, particularly where we have employed community connectors to support our affected communities post-cyclone, as we enter into a new phase of the cyclone recovery.”
Bickle said that this would, however, be offset by a necessary increase in staffing for the roading recovery which would require a huge amount of resource to deliver $800m in roading works over the next 6-7 years.
“Council is considering whether there are services to the community that should cease.”
“It is not our view that Council has too many staff. There are in fact a number of areas where an increase in staffing would enable Council to provide required services to a higher standard that budgets do not allow.”
Bickle, whose own remuneration is worth more than $420,000 per annum, says that Council utilises market remuneration data to determine remuneration rates for its employees.
The Council’s salary costs are just under $40m per annum.
“It is important to pay appropriately and competitively in order to attract and retain good staff. A significant number of our staff are professionally qualified, and such roles are thus remunerated accordingly,” Bickle said.
The community has until May 27 to give feedback on the draft plan that proposes a rate increase of 25 per cent for the 2024/25 year, eight per cent of which would be used to help fund the significant work required to repair and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle, the remainder to deliver core services.
People can read the consultation document and give their feedback online at myvoicemychoice.co.nz or at Hastings’ libraries (Flaxmere, Hastings, Havelock North) and the Hastings District Council customer service centre on Lyndon Rd East.
