A million-dollar shortfall in funding for the Southland District Council’s roading and bridges programme will not result in an immediate rates increase.
Ratepayers could face bigger bills and the closure of bridges throughout the next decade.
Last week, Mayor Gary Tong said he was frustrated at a NZ Transport Agency decision to fund only 85% of what had been requested for roading and bridge programmes for the first three years of the council’s long-term plan (LTP).
As the transport agency funded 52% of the roading budget, the council was facing a shortfall of $15million — about $7.5million from NZTA plus $7.5million from the council — for the first triennium of its proposed LTP.
At a finance and assurance committee meeting yesterday, councillors discussed how to cope with this shortfall.
After strong feedback from the community, voicing concerns about the proposed rates increase, council staff recommended a reduction on the rise for the next three years.
The proposed average rates increase for the triennium was 10.15%, 10.76% and 5.66%, respectively — now it was set at 9.38%, 8.31% and 5.75%.
The hit would now be spread over the remaining years of the plan — ratepayers would expect a bigger increase for 2024-25 of 9.11% (against the proposed 6.7%) and for 2025-26 of 7.02% (against the proposed 5.5%).
Councillor Don Byer showed concern about this, saying ratepayers already considered the proposed increase "unbearable," while Mayor Tong highlighted the district had one of the largest roading infrastructures in the country, but fewer ratepayers.
Council group manager services and assets Matt Russell explained to councillors the proposed action plan.
The level of services proposed in the LTP would be kept, however the road and bridges programme would be delayed and spread out.
Council had about 160 bridges to be replaced and it was aiming to ramp up its programmes in the next three years.
To do that, it had initially budgeted $3.5million yearly, but with the shortfall would spent $2.5million annually.
The proposed accelerated roading programme would also be scaled back for the same levels as previous years.
Council staff designed the strategy with the hope NZTA would return the same level of funding in 2024.
Audit NZ director Dereck Ollsson showed concern about this, saying sufficient funds might be not be available to pay for the planned boost in capital projects and maintenance costs in years four to 10 of the LTP, saying it had a "high risk"of being incorrect.
Council would keep having conversations with the Government to highlight the importance of its capital programme with the aim of getting the funding required.
After the meeting, Mr Russell told the Otago Daily Times:
"Ultimately over the 10-year period, we will be replacing the same number of bridges and the level of services will continue to be the same."
Councillors expected the audit process would end on June 25.
They would consider the final report and to adopt the long-term plan on June 29.
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Comments
Of couse the government don't have $15 million for Southland bridges - they are too committed to spashing $800 million plus for another bike bridge in Auckland. After all the lycra clad fools and yabbering greens must be satisfied no matter the needs of the rest of the country.
On the bright side, there will be no reason not to put tolls on the new Auckland bike bridge. Noone can pretend the bridge is for anyone other than a small number of noisy people so they obviously won't mind paying for their toys.