Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead is ''mighty frustrated'' over budget pressures arising from the Government's Gold Card free bus transport scheme.
Issues over the free off-peak travel scheme surfaced this week at a meeting of the council's finance and corporate committee.
The SuperGold free off-peak travel scheme, for people aged 65 or older, is a Ministry of Social Development-funded initiative, with the subsidy distributed by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).
A report tabled at the meeting noted that councils were reimbursed for 65% of the adult cash fare, below the 75% reimbursement level when the scheme was introduced in 2008.
The report, by Nick Donnelly, the council's incoming director corporate services, noted the Government had recently advised that the national scheme would be capped at this year's bulk budget allocation, with CPI index adjustments.
Without having a ''prescribed funding allocation'', the council could not calculate the ''actual impacts'' of the changes for the council, the report warned.
Mr Woodhead, who is a member of the committee, voiced his concern at the meeting and commented in an interview.
He said this was a Government scheme, which the council was voluntarily participating in, and the Crown was morally obliged to fund it properly.
As a point of principle, ''there should be no impact on the ratepayers'', he said.
The council understandably came under pressure to budget for its own activities responsibly, but it was hard to do this when unbudgeted extra costs were added at the 11th hour.
The cap approach would not result in immediate cost over-runs in Otago, but the full impact could be felt over the next few years.
The issue also concerned other regional councils and Local Government New Zealand was raising the issue with the Government.
He hoped a fair outcome could be achieved.
He has previously warned the funding change amounted to a ''blatant transfer''of costs from the Crown to local government.
Mr Donnelly said the council had recently included its estimates in the National Land Transport Programme for the funding programme running between this year and 2018.
This meant there would not be a chance to ''adjust for any impacts'' except through rates or fares for other users or by reducing operational costs or cutting the number of bus services.
