The new Dunedin City Council is facing a formidable task to try to limit large and unacceptable rate increases.
Tough choices have to be made as councillors battle this way and that through pre-draft annual plan proposals. Previous councils failed to oversee a lean and efficient operation and were unwilling to say "no" to manager and public pressure groups, and the consequences have intensified. Commitments were such that a 9.1% rates increase initially had been scheduled for the coming financial year, while debt continued to soar.
The council has been like a household on a fixed income that continued, nevertheless, to indulge spendthrift habits.
It has lived, while not always extravagantly, well beyond its means. Sufficient attention, as well, has not been paid to the accumulation of small costs - even cups of coffee at local coffee bars - and staff numbers have steadily risen.
Like so much of the Western world, the council has been spending more than it can reasonably afford, and it and the city are increasingly vulnerable. Overspending simply has to stop.
When proposals for projects came up for consideration over the past two decades the impact on rates would be costed and would not seem that bad.
Most of the immediate impost would be pushed to one side by way of increased debt, and interest charges taken alone appeared manageable.
But even they have mounted to $11.17 million a year, and they are due to double with spending on the likes of Tahuna sewage treatment, the Dunedin Centre upgrade and the Settlers Museum redevelopment.
The interest on stadium debt, while shifted off direct council books, also looms large.
We have always argued the city cannot stand still and that it has needed to make positive calls on some big projects. But, in so doing, just like most households, it had to pick and choose.
It could not fix the roof, build the garage, replace the carpet and renew the kitchen and bathroom all in quick succession.
Unfortunately, the council at the same time, allowed its core expenses to rise.
The council should also have had uppermost in its considerations the fact that new projects usually mean higher ongoing costs.
Base expenditure rises and the council has even less scope for other spending.
The primary concern of this newspaper over the Chinese Garden, for example, was annual running costs as income fell short of expenses. Regrettably, this is proving to be the case.
Projections as a tourist attraction were over optimistic, and initial popularity has waned. Likewise, a South Dunedin library, while another worthy addition, would add substantial operating costs every year.
Despite the financial pressures, and looking to the future and rather than at past mistakes, councillors will not be able to slash and burn arbitrarily.
Should it set in, panic would be destructive for core council operations, and the council has commitments to other funding bodies it must meet.
What is required, instead, are cool heads and a steady and strong will, passed through the chief executive and from there through management and staff. That will has to be focused on reducing staff numbers, budgets and the range of project commitments - and on increasing efficiencies.
This is far more than just cutting services and raising prices, management's usual response to demands to reduce the size of the rates increase.
As Cr Richard Thomson - experienced both in running a business in the extremely competitive retail sector and in constant health board spending constraint - said, it seems many of the identified $4 million in potential savings so far come from cutting grants, services or other council "outputs" rather than addressing the council's core operating costs, which required "a harder degree of assessment than has perhaps occurred to date".
The ODT has argued similarly for years.
Just like households at one level, and national governments at another, councillors in Dunedin - and in Queenstown Lakes where serious overspending has taken place - have to work at reducing rates increases and restricting debt across every possible front.
The pressure is, and will be, relentless.
Councillors and staff have a battle on their hands to pare back rate increases to the figure of 6.1% at present being considered.
The ink will barely be dry on such a target before public hearings begin in early May.
Councillors will then be bombarded with complaints about proposed cuts - as well as many further worthy requests for funding.
They will require wisdom and fortitude in finding a prudent balance.
Dunedin ratepayers must hope that they are up to the task.
