A Selwyn District Council candidate is proposing that councillors should refund their salaries to match any rates rise over inflation.
He is proposing that “every per cent over inflation that rates rise after year one, the CEO, councillors, and mayor voluntarily forfeit the same percentage of salary back to either the mayoral fund or to directly offset rates”.
“I have a suspicion that the rate increases would sort themselves out very quickly,” Wilshire said.
With inflation around 3% and the council’s long-term plan forecasting a 13.3% and 13% rise over the next two years, under Wilshire’s proposal, the new councillors could be refunding 20% of their pay for the next two years.
Based on 2025/26 figures, 1% of rates is $1,356,730, meaning they would need to cut around $13.3m from the budget each year to be in line with CPI inflation.
Six candidates are chasing the two at-large seats, and this week they attended two candidate events, including one at Lincoln on Monday and Rolleston on Wednesday.
At the Rolleston event, Wilshire said he believes he has “overly prepared myself to the point where I could go toe to toe with anybody that works on council”.
Wilshire and the other candidates all spoke of doing things better and providing more for the community, all on lower rate rises.
When asked what services would be cut to make that achievable, there were few specifics provided.
Wilshire’s response started as a continued criticism of the current council's performance before being asked to focus his answer on what he will do, not what has been done.
He then said he will look to cut operational expenditure, especially on consultants, and “invest it back into capital projects”.
“I don't mind spending a dollar if I can see where it goes. If it’s going on tea and coffee, and 640 staff, I don’t see that as value for money.”
Sharon Hunt has a financial background and skills to fix the council’s financial status, which is “simply embarrassing”.
Her cost-saving initiative was around traffic lights in Lincoln, which she said were $3m per set of lights and should be funded wholly by the developer, and that development contributions needed to be looked at to ensure it was adequate and timely.
Malvern Community Board member Calvin Payne, seeking election to the council for a third time, suggested the council needed to do things differently.
“The evidence for that is that eight out of 10 councillors have retired or resigned, so that’s what we need to fix.”
Samantha Samuel is promising a fresh perspective to tackle Selwyn’s rising challenges, stating that ratepayers shouldn't be funding tourism activities, as they should be user pays.
Barry Mackenzie and Tracey Macleod were absent and had their statements read out by representatives.
Mackenzie called the council’s current financial performance unsustainable and that “ratepayers deserve confidence in the basics before they are asked to pay more”.
Macleod highlighted issues around trust and transparency with the council she hopes to fix.
-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
