Hinewai Ormsby: Tough decisions are inevitable in regional council plan, the only question is which ones to make

Hinewai Ormsby says the balance between making savings and losing services is always challenging. Photo / Warren Buckland

OPINION

No one likes to make tough decisions, but Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has had to do this in considering its proposed 2024-2027 Three-Year Plan.

We find ourselves in this position partly because of a big natural event and partly because of the funding system for local government in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The cyclone and its lingering effects on our land and our people means we need to think about rebuilding as well as building up our resilience in the face of climate change. The proposed plan had to be focused on recovery and resilience.

But the way local government is funded – rates levied on property owners – means we face some unenviable decisions.

You might be interested to know that for over 100 years local rates in this country have basically been flat, while taxes – the money central government collects – have more than tripled. The graph features the most up-to-date national figures.

Nationally councils’ share of overall tax revenue has remained at just 2 per cent of GDP for at least the past 50 years, despite our ever-increasing responsibilities. That’s not sustainable. So, for now we are working with a broken funding model.

Keeping this in mind we also knew the plan could not be everything to everyone – people are doing it tough and so all costs needed to be examined and pared down – including our own operations.

The key things weighing on our minds as we put together the draft plan were:

· We need to deliver a $250 million flood resilience programme over the next four years which will see us build flood infrastructure to move properties in Category 2 areas to Category 1 to enable people to move on with their lives. This council’s share of that is $44m – money we need to find for years to come.

· We must investigate the long-term design and management of flood schemes in the face of our changing climate.

· We have to bolster funding for Civil Defence, as together with all the councils in the region we work on implementing recommendations from the review of the Civil Defence Emergency Management response to Cyclone Gabrielle.

· We need more consistent returns from the regional council’s investment arm – the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company – to keep rate increases down into the future.

· We will contain costs and redirect spending to recovery work. To do this we are proposing to stop and temporarily slow some services. We have also made internal cuts which combined with the proposed service changes, save $4.6 million in 2024-25.

All of this has been done and is reflected in our proposed plan.

Despite all our efforts we are proposing to raise rates. We are mindful of the impact of increased costs on ratepayers. Getting the balance right between savings and delivering services that communities value is always difficult.

That’s why your feedback is critical. Do you agree with the priorities? Do you think there should be others?

Councillors will consider your feedback and a wide variety of issues before making decisions on behalf of our 73,000+ ratepayers.

Our consultation runs until Wednesday, May 15. You can read the consultation document, find out about drop-in sessions with your councillors and make a submission at hbrc.govt.nz, search #haveyoursay.

We’ve made what we think are some tough decisions, will you now take a little time to have your say?

- Hinewai Ormsby is the chairwoman of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council