While it's a risky business making positive noises about rates, the dollar value of Federated Farmers advocacy needs to be emphasised: farming would be the worse without it.
North Island
In Rotorua the district council proposed an enormous rates hike for many farms, mostly dairy.
Word was circulating that, underneath the advertised 7 per cent average overall increase, there were rate jumps on individual farms of up to 69 per cent -- thousands of dollars for some businesses.
The local Federation executive cast a jaundiced eye over the numbers, and spotted a couple of subtle policy changes shifting a big chunk of rate revenue from flat charges to the capital value general rate. A series of hall meetings was organised, and ultimately the Federation and a number of farmers submitted against the changes. At least 30 spoke to the whole council about their concerns on a windswept Friday in June.
Some had said it wouldn't be worth the effort but, in its final deliberations, the Rotorua council throttled back on the changes, saving many farmers somewhere between $1000 and $4000 in what would have been increased rates -- something for the bottom line and a real statement about the capacity of Federated Farmers to stem a fresh tide of costs.
A moral and partial victory for an encumbered minority, its value shouldn't be underestimated.
Another positive story, of a somewhat brighter hue, can be found in Thames Coromandel's Long Term Plan. Over a number of years farmers have worked on a constructive relationship with the council and a rating system that recognises the need for balance has been developed. A variety of flat charges, differentials and targeted rates smooth bumps and can bear fruit in difficult years.
For 2015 farm properties will enjoy rates drops of between 8 and 18 per cent. While this won't happen every year, it shows that farm rates can defy the odds and actually reduce if advocacy is solid and enduring.
In Waipa a more grim tale unfolded, of a good rating system going backwards and major leaps in rates on farms proposed as the council sought, like Rotorua, to get more of its revenue from property value rates. A strong effort from the Federation executive and policy staff, and a submission hearing with at least 40 farmers attending, didn't turn the tide but shaved some of the additional rates off -- somewhere between $200 and $500 for individuals for the year.
South Island
The Invercargill City Council proposed to increase farm property rates between 16 and 19 per cent, a stark contrast to the 3.71 per cent overall rates increase proposed.
The council also indicated it was going to phase out the farming differential, which currently gives rural ratepayers a 20 per cent 'discount' on property value-based rates. Yet even with the farming differential, farmers are still paying many times more than residential ratepayers for a number of council services and activities.
Federated Farmers Southland strongly opposed the proposed farming rates increases and the phasing out of the farming differential.
As a result of our submissions, the council decided to increase the farming differential from 20 to 30 per cent, resulting in hundreds of dollars' worth of rates savings for farmers in Invercargill City District.
Meanwhile Otago farmers, struggling to get their heads around how to best meet new rural water quality regulations, were given a further shortener through proposed targeted rates to fund science and monitoring, and a proposed new dairy rate based on catchment risk.
The message that only rural resource users were facing new water quality rules, and "oh by the way" only rural resource users would be paying specific targeted rates for the regional council's regulatory responsibilities, received a fairly prompt response from the Federation and Otago farmers, many of whom submitted to the process.
To their credit, Otago Regional Council stepped back from its proposals, reducing the water quality targeted rate to just over 60 per cent of what was initially proposed, and agreed to charge dairy farmers only one dairy monitoring rate per farm, reducing that rate to a third for those farmers in the sensitive catchments.
In Kaikoura, the council also listened to Federated Farmers and made changes to its road spending, is adjusting its differential for footpaths, and is moving to use uniform annual charges to fund its contribution to the local hospital and for funding the swimming pool. This will save farmers at a time when farm incomes are coming under severe pressure from the impacts of the drought and low dairy payout.
