Horizons Regional Council proposes highest rate increases in years

Work to increase the resilience of flood protection assets in the Lower Manawatū.

OPINION:
Horizons is seeking your views about how we manage our region's natural resources for the next 10 years, and how we propose to rate for it.

Our draft 2021-2031 Long-term Plan (LTP) includes proposed average rate increases up to 8 per cent a year.

These are the highest rate increases Horizons has set in many years, if ever. They come at a time when Covid-19 is still a serious global pandemic, and where narrative around economic recovery and affordability are prevalent.

However, our proposed average rates increases also come at a time when the regional council sector has been tasked with delivering multiple central government policy reforms – particularly in the freshwater space, but more recently announced Resource Management Act reforms and potentially a revised Biodiversity National Policy Statement.

Deciding on what goes in our LTP is no easy job and we want to hear your thoughts on whether we have got it right. Councillors have been workshopping the plan since the middle of last year, weighing up work that needs doing versus affordability for communities.

We appreciate that any rates increase is not ideal and have looked for savings wherever we can. However, it is not enough to only look at the cost in terms of rates. We also need to look at the cost of inaction.

What is the cost of not preparing our communities for the changes caused by our climate? Or the cost of not acting to halt the biodiversity crisis? Or not ensuring our freshwater quality is secured for future generations? The cost of doing nothing is too great, but we do need further conversations on how we spread that cost in a fair and equitable way.

Included in our plan are the Covid-recovery projects co-funded by central government, which consist of biodiversity and freshwater improvements under the Jobs for Nature package, and work to improve the resilience of our flood protection assets under the Infrastructure Climate Resilience package.

We propose improvements to passenger transport services, further work in the climate change space, and new contestable funds for both biodiversity and climate resilience. We are also proposing significant investment to rewrite the freshwater component of our One Plan by 2024 to meet the government's new freshwater standards.

In addition, the LTP lays out how we propose to fund these increased services through rates and also through extending our debt so the cost is spread across time.

You can have your say on what we are proposing by looking for our submission form in your letterbox, or you can go online to haveyoursay.horizons.govt.nz. You can also use our rates calculator to see exactly what is the proposed rates increase for your property – your actual rates bill will differ from the average depending on things like property specific rates and when your district was last revalued.

Submissions close on April 23 so make sure you have your say on the future of your region.

+ Rachel Keedwell is the chairwoman of Horizons Regional Council.