Hastings District Council today opted for an average 19% increase, after investigating the impact of reducing a proposed, average 25% rate increase for the 2024/25 year.
In its draft Long Term Plan (LTP) 2024-2034, Council proposed a 25% rate increase for the
2024/25 year – 8% of which would be targeted for cyclone recovery costs, and 17% primarily for base funding for building and maintaining sustainable infrastructure and servicing debt.
Last week councillors considered 461 submissions on the proposals put forward during the LTP consultation, and heard from more than 50 submitters in person.
At today’s council meeting, Hastings Mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst said many submitters’ feedback highlighted and reflected the challenges being felt across the board with the rising cost-of-living and increasing insurance costs, on top of recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We have listened to the community and we know it’s very tough and that many are struggling, particularly those on fixed incomes,” she said.
“Our teams came back to us with some modelling that showed we could reduce the increase to 19%, but this will mean we are borrowing more to meet operational costs, in tandem with continuing to pursue cost savings and other revenue opportunities.
“While this might ease some of the burden now, what this decrease is doing is similar to what happens when you extend a mortgage on a house – it takes longer to pay off our debt and we will be paying more in the long run.”
Reducing the Year 1 rate increase to 19%, however, would mean larger rate increases would be needed for longer than had been proposed in the draft plan, the Mayor said.
“In considering all the options we had to balance any rating increases with council’s ability to deliver what it’s tasked with delivering. As with the rest of the community, this organisation is grappling with increasing costs across all its activities, and it’s going to be difficult in the years ahead.”
“We will continue to seek efficiencies wherever possible, and will also continue to strongly advocate for more Government funding to assist with our recovery and lessen the burden on our ratepayers now and into the future,” she said.
