A Kāpiti Coast community board member has sounded the alarm over proposed rates hikes of an average of more than 8 percent per year for the next three years.
Kāpiti Mayor K Gurunathan. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The District Council will be debating its budget for the next 10 years in a meeting later on this week, which also proposes increasing their limit on borrowing.
The plan is looking to stimulate the area's recovery following the pandemic, as well as to invest in growth over the next five years.
But Deputy Chair of the Raumati Paraparaumu Community Board, Guy Burns, said it's central government's responsibility to intervene in the economy, not the council's.
What does the council's long-term plan look like?
The proposed long-term plan will come under the microscope during a council meeting this Thursday.
Subject to particular scrutiny will be the rates increases, which will be 7.8 percent for the first year (2021-2022), 8.3 percent the year after, and 8.6 percent the year after that.
Their borrowing limit will also be raised, with operating income increased to 250 percent.
The district council is looking to go large, investing in capital works.
In this field, over the past three years, on average $23.2 million has been spent each year. The new plan would see a yearly investment into capital projects at an average of $73.8 million.
That means investment in the capital programme will increase by nearly 320 percent.
In the draft plan, Kāpiti Coast District Council Mayor K Gurunathan said now is the time to spend big.
"This plan has a strong focus on our response to the Covid-19 pandemic," he wrote.
"The biggest contribution council can make to recovery is to ramp up our projects and activities to stimulate our local economy and reduce the negative impacts."
The move to scale up spending is also driven by the need to accommodate more people coming to live in the region.
Its current population of 55,500 is expected to increase to 85,000 by 2050.
"Council is a small player"
But this direction has been criticised by the Deputy Chair of the Raumati Paraparaumu Community Board, Guy Burns.
"We're a small borough of 60,000 people, and to call upon ratepayers to raise an extra few percent in rates to stimulate the economy is really outlandish, I believe.
"I believe the role of council is not to stimulate the economy, that's a role for central government.
"Council should be providing core services: water, roading and sewage. That's their jobs."
He said he was also uncomfortable with the proposal to increase the borrowing limit.
As part of the consultation document, feedback will be sought on whether the council should increase its role in housing - either through actually expanding its current portfolio, or by using the levers it has at its disposal to influence the supply of affordable housing.
The former should be left to the government, Burns said.
"More housing I totally support, more social housing. But I do not support our council having to be the driver of this, it should be central government.
"The council is a small player - it's the role of central government to fund major infrastructure projects, such as housing."