“Get in early, ring up and talk to someone because there is plenty of help available to get through it,” she said.
Mayor Rehette Stoltz noted the council had a remissions policy and payment plans available.
She said it was tough out there and will get “tougher once the Government comes with all the water regulations”.
“So buckle up ... We don’t have an easy road ahead of us,” she said to councillors.
Staff were instructed to do the plan as leanly and as efficiently as possible, she said.
Gisborne District Council approved its annual plan on Thursday and set its rates for the 2025/26 year, with a 9.95% increase in overall rate revenue (excluding growth), totalling $107.4 million (including GST).
The council’s annual plan focuses on delivering essential services and supporting Tairāwhiti’s recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.
“Key investments include roads, bridges, water infrastructure and flood protection – all aimed at building stronger, more resilient communities,” says the report.
The annual plan slightly departs from the council’s three-year plan.
According to the report, the differences are largely due to an expanded roading renewals programme, following changes by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) for regional transport improvements. Debt also increased because of Gisborne Holdings Ltd revised forecasts, which didn’t expect to return a dividend in 2025/26.
Forecast debt increased from $220m to $227m, 150% of revenue.
That remained within the council’s financial strategy threshold of 175% of total revenue, according to the report.
At the meeting, councillor Teddy Thompson expressed concern over the council’s forecast debt.
“I’m really concerned with how our loans and borrowings just keep going up like it’s free money,” he said.
“I would like to see at least that we stick within our three-year plan.”
Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann said the council had significantly lower debt than any other council in New Zealand, and “we had a massive disruption”.
She said a lot of the debt is a front-loading component of being able to co-fund the council’s share of investment that was required after Cyclone Gabrielle.
Over the three-year plan from 2024 to 2027, forecast rate increases are expected to be no more than 11.4%.
Of that, 7.9% is “business as usual costs”, and 3.5% is for “recovery, mostly charged as a fixed amount against each rateable property”, according to the draft annual plan.
The estimated average rate increase of $400 for 80% of the district will mostly affect the city, where residents rely on reticulated services for wastewater, water and stormwater, which have cost increases of $125 plus GST.
For 3800 rural properties that mostly do not have reticulated services, increases will be between $150-$225.
Largely because of the cost of reticulated services and the Uniform Annual Levy Charge, 374 commercial properties are increasing between $400 and $750, according to the draft.
“Most of the increases over $1500 are for high capital value properties in the district (pastoral, forestry, and residential complexes) or properties with a large number of reticulated services,” the draft plan says.
