Far North elderly folk may have to sell their homes, or give up essentials like food and visits to the grandchildren, if a 16.5 per cent rates rise is introduced, Far North Grey Power says.
Far North ratepayers face a 16.5 per cent rates rise as the council plays “catch-up” to help recover from the effects of recent weather events that have cost tens of millions of dollars. However, it could have been even worse, with the council initially looking at a 33 per cent rise.
FNDC formally adopted the its Long Term Plan (LTP) consultation document for the 2024-27 financial years last week and it is now out for consultation.
The council is the latest local body around the country to propose double digit rates rises as many struggle with paying for failing infrastructure and the costs of weather damage.
People now have a month to have their say on how the council allocates its spending for the next three years.
Far North Kahika/Mayor Moko Tepania said the LTP usually looks 10 years ahead but back-to-back weather events in 2022 and 2023, including Cyclone Gabrielle, had a significant impact on Far North infrastructure. These caused 487 slips - 140 by Cyclone Gabrielle alone - and the repair bill for the district’s road network has been estimated at $41 million with $15m of those completed.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said a proposed 16.5 per cent rates rise is a “catch-up” to help recover from the effects of recent weather events.
Tepania said this current LTP should be treated as a “catch-up plan” to enable the district to recover from the effects of recent weather events.
It includes a total rates increase of 16.5 per cent for the 2024/25 financial year that starts in July; a 7.9 per cent rise for 2025/26 and then 4.6 per cent in the third year - meaning rates will rise by about 30 per cent at the end of the three years.
But it’s the first year’s rise that will possibly bite the hardest, as the country struggles through a cost of living crisis that has seen bills rise across the board.
Bird said the proposed rates hike will hit the elderly hardest, with most on fixed incomes and unable to generate any extra income to meet the increase.
He said with prices rising - with power, mortgage rates, food, petrol and most other expenses up - the elderly would be hit particularly hard.
Bird is urging people to make submissions to the LTP to show the council that the rate rise “is not on and totally unfair to everybody, not just the elderly”.
“Though it makes elderly people unduly suffer,” he said.
“Some are already selling their houses to buy caravans to tour around the country so they don’t have to pay the rising costs and more will have to sell up if this rates rise comes in.
“It’s just not affordable for so many who live on fixed incomes and have already budgeted for what little money they have. Having this huge rise come from left field has thrown those budgets out the window.”
He said many elderly would be having a close look at those budgets again to see what they could give up to pay the rates bill.
“Is that essentials like food, is it missing out on going to see the grandchildren because the cost of petrol is so high too? Or is it cutting back on the heating and power to save money? Whatever, it’s going to really hit our elderly folk hard.”
Bird said about 70 per cent of Grey Power members still had a mortgage so they were also being hit by high mortgage interest rates.
“For the elderly, we’re just being hit hard from all sides with prices rising everywhere. Now the council is having its go and we really need to ask what do we get for this massive rise?”
Bird acknowledged that many were struggling as the cost of living crisis deepened, but he urged the council to not go ahead with such a big rise and instead, come up with other solutions to raise funds.
He said the Far North, like many other councils around the country, was suffering from decades of underfunding on infrastructure, and “now it’s time to pay the ferryman”.
Bird said many elderly people, in an effort to help save the planet for their grandchildren, bought electric or hybrid vehicles, but they were now forced to pay road user charges for them from April 1.
“So we were trying to do our bit for the planet and now they are penalising us for that with these road user charges that were not there before. It’s just one rising cost after another . . .”
Independent Grey Power research into the cost of living shows that rates/rent and energy are the two largest financial concerns for pensioner households. A single superannuant earns $30,090, less tax, a year, with a couple getting $45,738, less tax.
Tepania said that while this rise is historically high for FNDC, it is on a par with many other councils, and according to Local Government New Zealand, 25 out of 48 councils are proposing rate increases of between 14 and 16 per cent.
