The Te Huia commuter train at the Rotokauri Transport Hub in Hamilton.
Waikato Regional Council will continue funding the Te Huia passenger train between Hamilton and Auckland for the next two years.
Councillors made the decision, amongst others, after two days of deliberations about the council’s 2024-2034 Long-Term Plan.
In regards to Te Huia, the council had to consider options to address the service’s funding shortfall created through the reduced NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) subsidy.
On May 16, NZTA announced it would progressively reduce its subsidy for Te Huia – from 75.5 per cent to 70 per cent in 2024/25 and 60 per cent in 2025/26.
Now, regional councillors heard that $2.2 million of Te Huia targeted rates had accumulated due to the postponed service launch, Covid-19 lockdowns, and delayed rollout of service improvements as a result of last year’s locomotive driver shortages.
As the funds had been collected from the regional council’s Hamilton ratepayers specifically for Te Huia, the money could only be spent on the service, councillors were told.
In a vote of 12-2, councillors supported using those reserve funds to continue funding Te Huia, as it would have no rating impact and would enable the service to complete its five-year trial.
Waikato Regional Council chairwoman Pamela Storey said she knew the funding decision was highly anticipated by the community.
“There will be many in our community waiting on tenterhooks for this decision and celebrating the continuation of Te Huia for at least the next two years.
“It also [gives] us the certainty we need to plan the next two years to achieve the targets set by the NZTA and demonstrate the value of a service connecting Waikato and Auckland.”
Other topics discussed during the LTP deliberations included rates rises which will now be higher than originally proposed.
In its draft LTP, which went out for public consultation from April 2 until May 2, the council proposed a 6 per cent rates increase.
After the deliberations, the council decided to collect rates revenue of $142.146 million in the first year of the 2024-2034 Long Term Plan, with a 7.4 per cent increase from current ratepayers in the first year.
One contributor to the rates rise was the increase of the natural heritage rate to $15 a year per property. In its draft LTP a preferred option of $8.68 per property per year had been earmarked.
The decision to increase the heritage rate was supported in a 9-4 vote, with one abstention.
Storey said there had been some “robust debate” during the two days of deliberation.
During the draft LTP consultation, 862 submitters provided 1672 submission points, with close to 70 individuals, groups and agencies having made oral submissions as well.
“We carefully weighed up the feedback provided against the cost of living crisis impacting our communities around the region.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to construct a long-term plan that balances the cost to ratepayers with the need to respond to challenges, invest in our future and continue to help build resilience in the Waikato,” she said.
Councillors also agreed to collect a region-wide public transport rate from 2025/26, and spend the coming months developing a rating model (for feedback early next year), disestablish the Regional Development Fund and introduce a new rural compliance and support rate that has a mix of targeted and general rate funding.
The closing of Waikato’s regional economic development agency Te Waka at the end of June meant councillors didn’t need to make a funding decision on this.
Instead, council staff were given until September to report back on work with key stakeholders to develop an appropriate structure to support regional economic development for the Waikato.
Residual money from the Regional Development Fund would be available for regional economic development activities, subject to approval and following consultation with regional stakeholders.