Horizons Regional Council chair Rachel Keedwell. Photo / Bevan Conley
Horizons Regional Council chair Rachel Keedwell. Photo / Bevan Conley
Horizons Regional Council has adopted its annual plan, signalling an average rates increase of 8.8%, which is lower than originally forecast.
The plan was adopted at a council meeting in Tararua on June 24.
The average rates increase of 8.8% is lower than what was in the 2024-34 Long-Term Plan(12%) and what was consulted on earlier this year (11.3%).
Council chair Rachel Keedwell said the increase was reflective of the work that needed to be done and Government changes.
“We have adjusted our plans for the upcoming year based on a changing legislative and policy landscape from central Government, and by working hard to find efficiencies in insurance, overheads and reprioritisations,” Keedwell said.
“At the same time, we have stuck to what we said we would do in our Long-Term Plan and retained additional funding for biodiversity, river management maintenance and public transport programmes.”
About 1.6% of the increase is for targeted public transport rates – meaning they only impact the areas where the services run, such as Palmerston North and Whanganui.
The remaining 3.8% reflects increased “business-as-usual” costs.
Horizons is committed to funding biodiversity projects.
Keedwell said the rates increase would differ between properties and districts for a range of reasons, including targeted rates programmes and property revaluations.
Councillor Alan Taylor said it was important for constituents to look beyond the 8.8% figure and understand the substance of the annual plan.
“The plan exposes what we intend to do with the taxes people pay,” Taylor said.
“[The] council’s vision is about what we are doing, what we are achieving, how we get there and what we have achieved. It should not be focusing on a meaningless mathematical manipulation.”
Councillor Gordon McKellar said the council must keep in mind that many people did not have the ability to pay compounding rates increases.
“It is compounding every year, whereas previously we used to be one or two times the rate of inflation but now we are sitting on 3.5 [times more], which is better than the four-and-a-half which was forecasted [sic] but it is still in my view too high and we need to look at savings on the way,” McKellar said.
Councillor Bruce Gordon agreed.
“When you add last year’s rate rise to this year’s rate rise, we are well and truly in the upper end of councils throughout the country and it’s not a place I’m comfortable being,” Gordon said.
“We’ve got to get things under control going forward, because 18%-plus in two years is not sustainable and we are being told that by many, many people.”
Deputy chair Jono Naylor said there was a balancing act with what would happen to ratepayers down the line if the council did not increase rates.
“I would love to put people’s rates down but, in order to achieve that, we have to ask ourselves, ‘what is it that we are doing that really isn’t that important?’, and I struggle to find too much of what we are doing that isn’t important that needs to be done,” Naylor said.
The proposed amendment to the 2024-34 Long-Term Plan, which would enable a possible sale of Horizons’ stake in CentrePort, will not go ahead.
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
