Rates increases were heading for 25 per cent across three years, he said, and the pace of change was unfair on pensioners and people with fixed incomes. He wanted Horizons to push the Government for bigger rates rebates.
The $200,000 spend on climate change in the plan's first year became a bone of contention at the first meeting where councillors approved the plan. The money will be used for a new co-ordinator position, staff time across the organisation, a new $50,000 contestable fund for action, and for community engagement, technical advice and addressing risks like flooding, Horizons chairwoman Rachel Keedwell said.
In the Rangitīkei district, flood-prone land in the river's lower reaches will be retired from farming and planted instead. Much of it is owned by Horizons and has been leased to farmers.
The change would provide less flood protection to residents and was a sensitive issue that would be discussed with them, Keedwell said.
The council has an inventory of its own greenhouse gas emissions. It will now look for reductions, and use the present level as a baseline to measure from.
Its new, $260,000 contestable Kanorau Koiora Taketake Indigenous Biodiversity Community Fund has had 36 applications. Applicants will find out in July whether they were successful.
The freshwater work ahead would be huge, Keedwell said, and more staff and consultant time would be needed. The main difference was giving priority to Te Mana o Te Wai - that means protecting the health and wellbeing of water and providing for human needs before allowing other uses.
It would be important to ensure Māori people could contribute to that work, and some had been given seats on governance groups and received meeting fees. They should be paid like any other specialist, Keedwell said.
"There's no funding given to iwi to do that consultation and the rest of us get paid. The system isn't going to work unless there's an ability to reflect that true cost."
Parts of the One Plan will need to be rewritten to line up with the Government's water bottom lines, and the region's catchments must each have individual plans by the end of 2024.
"That was proposed to take until 2030, and we were going to do them one at a time. Now we have to do all the catchments at once, by 2024."
The Whanganui River will be a special case, because of Te Awa Tupua legislation.
"How does that sit alongside or above the catchment planning processes that we have? It's not like any other river, but it's probably a really good model," Keedwell said.
The council has had four appeals to its proposed plan change on leaching from intensive farming. The appeals are from Fish & Game, Tararua farmer Andrew Day, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Turanga.
Other appellants can now join them as they go to the Environment Court.
The plan change was intended to be only temporary, Keedwell said, and the appeals "waste more time" before the greater plan is reviewed.
