(file image) Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Central Otago District Council has voted to increase rates by an average of 18.3 percent, despite passionate pleas from the community to keep them lower.
Councillors made their decision to adopt the annual plan, which includes that rates increase, during a meeting on Wednesday, saying they could not afford to put off the rates increase.
The original starting was a more than 45 percent rates increase.
The council said it had taken an essential-only approach to reduce it, but Three Waters alone accounted for more than a quarter of the council's operating costs next financial year.
Multiple residents spoke during the public forum, saying many ratepayers would struggle or simply could not afford the increase.
Councillor Sarah Browne said as a ratepayer, she was stressed about the incoming bill but it did not mean the council should put it off.
"I had a real hard conversation with my kids ... 'KiwiSaver's something I can stop right now to pay the rates'."
It was a difficult decision which many people would not get, but she had come to understand why it needed to be made while sitting at the council table, she said.
"I don't like it, but it's justifiable," Browne said.
Mayor Tim Cadogan says they cannot just keeping kicking the can down the road. Photo: Supplied
Mayor Tim Cadogan said not a single elected member was happy about this situation, and many other councils had signed off high rates rises, because of the situation they all found themselves in.
"The only way that we could reduce where we're at now is to kick that can down the road, to run at a deficit and pay the interest on that or to not fund our depreciation and let the next generation pay for it," Cadogan said.
"And there has been too much of that behaviour by the local government sector in New Zealand."
Councillor Tamah Alley said the rate increases had been brewing for many years.
It was not just pensioners who would be hit hard, but families working multiple jobs, students supporting their family finances while also going to high school, she said.
"We're continually being asked to cut our cloth to fit, but it's very difficult when the design, materials and timeframe for completion are being specified by central government or by our resource consent conditions," Alley said.
During the public forum, Grey Power Central Otago president Stan Randle told councillors the rates rise should be limited to the rate of inflation, because too many people could not afford a rates hike.
"It's simply too high. In fact, they have discovered that the published 18 percent increase is not actually correct - 23 percent-plus is the rate increase for many, so in a way they feel they've been misinformed," he said.
Another resident told councillors it was better to kick the can down the road than kick the ratepayers down the road.
He believed the council should reassess and make more trade-offs to ensure ratepayers did not face such a significant rates hike.
Councillor Stu Duncan said it had to be done.
"Like we can't keep kicking bridges down the road. Rules have changed, laws have changed, inflation's come along, Covid got in the middle. But we have to do it," he said.
Councillor Tracy Paterson said they have listened to residents around the council table, at the supermarket, the petrol station, the local pub, group meetings and even at their own dining table.
"It doesn't make the decision-making process any easier, but I just want the community to know that we have heard and we have listened."
Council chief executive Peter Kelly said work would continue to reduce costs in the year ahead, and they would review levels of service whilst not compromising their 'must do' services ahead of their long-term plan.