An annual plan lays out the work a council intends to do for the coming year, what it will cost and where it will find the money - including how much it will draw from local property owners’ weighty wallets via rates.
Reasons given in the meeting to support this decision included:
The Annual Plan had no “significant changes” from what was projected in the council’s 2021-31 Long-term Plan;
The rates rise was only “marginally above” the projection and rose less than inflation had;
Consulting takes up a lot of staff time and could cost up to $40,000;
The risk of losing community engagement if people are “over-consulted”;
Changes in the plan were generally due to inflation and interest - factors beyond the council’s control.
What a perceptive Long-Term Plan Amendment it must have been to have set a course completely accounting for the global economic upheaval we’re all experiencing.
Except, it didn’t. We know that because there are costs that have changed, which the council attributed primarily to inflation and interest rates rising beyond its projections. The plan was based on an inflation estimate of about 3 per cent; rather, it has exceeded 7 per cent.
Tauranga City commissioners (from left) Shadrach Rolleston, Bill Wasley, Stephen Selwood, Anne Tolley. Photos / File
The council accepts things have changed and acknowledges its own position is different to when it last consulted the community, but seems to fail to consider the same may be true of the Tauranga residents and businesses who pay most of its bills.
Perhaps, for example, a change in the overall rates rise, from the 6 per cent projected and broadly consulted on to 7.1 per cent, might have some wanting the council to rethink its priorities, given the increased financial pressures people are facing.
The draft rise works out to a median residential increase of 8.7 per cent (up about $240 on 2021-22) and 17 per cent commercial (about $1400). The council could not provide a comparative breakdown for the Long-Term Plan Amendment’s 6 per cent projection.
While the legislation allows for councils to skip consultation on Annual Plans sometimes, Tauranga’s situation does not sit well with me.
The point of local government is that it’s close to the people who pay for it to provide services and progress for all. Councils are not meant to be an invisible force, silently governing in the background of residents’ lives. There’s meant to be a two-way flow of ideas and feedback. Not consulting suggests an attitude in the organisation that residents will not have anything useful to offer.
A council governed by government appointees rather than representatives elected by the people should have even more reasons to ensure its consultation practices go above and beyond the legislative requirements.
For the council to simply decide to take more ratepayer cash without asking ratepayers about it in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis strikes me as arrogant, allowing strategic direction to run roughshod over the question of people’s ability to pay.
