Yesterday, as the council’s finance committee approved a proposal to spend $75.49million in the coming financial year — $7.79million more than this year — a series of councillors heralded the plan as "brave".
Cr Gretchen Robertson said the council was signalling "that we really want to do things differently".
While it was easy for councils to say the Government was imposing new requirements, new work and new spending on councils, "it’s society that’s asking us to".
The council asked itself what changes it had to make "to catch up with where society is at".
"We’ve got quite a lot of increases in compliance — we’re responding to that."
Council corporate services general manager Nick Donnelly said much of the added spending in the regulatory arm of the council was "demand-driven".
The report he presented yesterday, under "regional leadership", showed the council expected to spend $2.98million more than projected in the last long-term plan dealing with governance issues, including reworking water plans, its overarching regional policy statement, assessing "highly productive land", and providing support to all the councils under it as they developed their district plans.
It would spend $2.12million more than forecast on additional consent processing staff, improving its environmental incident response, and compliance monitoring on the regulatory side.
Across the region, the council would take $15.62million in targeted rates and $12.197million in general rates — an increase of $1.02million (9.1%) from last year’s $11.18million general rates take.
To balance that, the council would ask for $2million more than it had planned to from Port Otago, upping the dividend the company would pay out from a planned $8.1million to $10.1million.
The council would also move $4million from its reserves to cover more of the added spending.
Proposed adjustments to the long-term plan include an increase of $576,000 funding for pest management in response to the council’s new pest plan, while the council determines what a "sustainable" level of funding for pest management is.
To meet Government requirements it will increase its budget for "state of the environment" reporting by $925,000.
Cr Kevin Malcolm said "a lot of work" had been done to recognise the pressure staff would be under, and he sought assurances from management that staff would not be "overstretched".
Council chief executive Sarah Gardner said while much of the added workload was "mandatory work", where it was able, the council was trying to accommodate added work that councillors said mattered.
Among the examples offered yesterday, a median Queenstown capital value residential property of $850,000 charged $106.48 in 2019-20 would attract a $115.47 general rates bill in 2020-21.
Owners of a median value Central Otago rural property of $1,500,000 that was charged $134.23 in 2019-20 would face a general rates bill of $176.52.
The public will be able to submit on the proposed plan between March 26 and April 24 , and hearings will be held between May 21 and 26.
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Comments
I think you'll find, councilors, that 'society', or ratepayers as we are also known, have no wish for you to spend an additional 10% on our behalf thank you. And the news that you intend to fleece another 20% from Port Otago over the same spending period fills me with dread. Have you forgotten already the results of the DCC robbing Aurora of it's investment capital? Get a grip people.
More taxation from another out of control council. Personally, I use ZERO, ORC services- let the users pay for the perceived value of the services they use- that is fair. Being bold with our money when we can not object to the technocrats' empire building sounds like the definition of "the*t".
I thought the ORC has its own reserves - that which it has taken from working budgets so that it can build its own office accomodation. Could these not be drawn down on and alternatives such as leasing accomodation become the option?
And such a good day to announce a massively increased take from the Port...ouch!https://www.odt.co.nz/business/port-otago-half-year-profits-down-16