Waitakere council throws out $1.35m spending cuts

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Waitakere City councillors have made a last-minute decision against spending cuts of $1.35 million.

After sustained haggling, a council meeting yesterday adopted in principle a budget for the new year that pegs the general rate to this year's level.

The draft annual plan had last month called for increased spending of $1.5 million, which would have meant a rate increase of less than 1 per cent.

But by yesterday, under pressure from the Go Waitakere ticket, which was aiming for a nil increase, the council had listed spending cuts of $1,350,000.

This represented cuts of $60,000 more than were needed to level-peg the rate.

But Go Waitakere's efforts came under desperate fire from councillor Penny Hulse and supporters, who tried to restore $400,000 to the budget with little success.

They failed to win $70,000 for out-of-school care and school holiday programmes. Their successes included getting $5000 voted for a Maori economic development scheme, $20,000 for Glen Eden and Ranui community houses, and $20,000 for the West Auckland District Social Services.

In an earlier skirmish, the city's acclaimed anti-graffiti community paint project won back $10,000.

After the meeting, Go Waitakere councillor Jenny Price expressed disappointment that a respectable decrease in rates could not have been delivered.

She said it was unfortunate that yesterday the ticket was below its normal voting strength of seven councillors, because two were on sick leave.

Asked if she thought the cuts were just, Mrs Price replied: "No. It's unfair that people with sea views are being rated off their properties."

She said the budget had some fat left to cut off; for example, a sum of $276,000 from stormwater renewals.

Penny Hulse said the council was signalling that it was not prepared to care for the city's younger people when it cut the after-school and holiday programmes.

She was also concerned that the council was setting people up for a 3 to 4 per cent rate rise after next year's elections, because of delayed maintenance of services.

Lower-value properties connected to the city sewer will, in fact, pay more rates in the new year - about $30 for a property with a land value of $60,000. This is a result of introducing to rates a $100 flat charge per property for waste water and reducing reliance upon rating on land value.

The rating level is not cast in stone. The annual plan has been adopted in principle only.

Go Waitakere could later this month, when it is back to full voting strength, attempt further budget pruning.

The opportunity could arise in a fortnight when the council reviews its 10-year financial strategy in light of the new year's plan.