Tararua rates to rise - but only slightly

Richard Taylor, left, council governance manager, Tracey Collis, mayor, and Blair King, council chief executive, during hearings into the Long Term Plan. Photo / Christine McKay

Prudence, viability and financial capacity into the future are all key components of the Tararua District Council's rates package, Raj Suppiah says.

Suppiah, the council's chief financial officer, said the finance team had included changes following submissions to the Long Term Plan, but they had met the challenges.

"Our average rates increase will be 3.95 per cent, up slightly from the 3.5 per cent, which had been indicated in draft LTP," he said.

And despite the additional spending, Cameron McKay, council's finance manager, said council also had liquidity strategies in place.

"We have more standby money to use if we need it, but it comes at a cost. We don't need to access that now, but we need to consider the unforeseens, such as emergency events," he said.

"Fortunately, we are well placed in the sector with plenty of room between ourselves and our borrowing limits.

"We have been in a low debt environment which has allowed us to go through with our ambitious LTP and to be able to respond to the issues we don't know about today."

Suppiah conceded rates were higher than at the time of the last LTP and debt levels would peak at $40 million in Year 7, compared to an estimated $37.5m in the draft LTP, but he was confident there was prudence going forward and that future generations shouldn't be burdened.

"We have also tried to reduce the impact of a rates increase for the rural sector and we believe our rates increases are now balanced," he said.

Councillor Andy Thompson said he was aware of the hard work and analysis which had gone into the rates, but he was aware of one or more ratepayers who were displeased with their rating increase.

Councillor Shirley Hull said the LTP had been a long process, with 90 written submissions and 27 oral submissions.

"I'm pleased with the public buy-in," she said. "And I'm pleased council staff have taken up the challenge and reflected what ratepayers have brought to the table."

Suppiah said there had been a lot of effort from staff behind the scenes and he was "quite proud" the adopted LTP reflected the community view.

For district mayor Tracey Collis, the absence of auditors at the meeting to adopt the LTP reflected their confidence in the document.

"This is the absolute icing on the cake and community engagement has played a big part," she said.

"It's outstanding and ratepayers will be very pleased with their rates increase in relation to other districts."

Congratulating the senior finance team of Raj Suppiah, Cameron McKay and Wiehan Labuschagne, Collis said she "put it down to the suits," as the team always wore suits when attending council meeting.