Councillors opt for belt-tightening to keep rates down

South Taranaki District councillors agreed to implement a range of cost cutting measures totalling almost $1 million to reduce this year's average rate increase from 8.66% to 5.46%.

Councillors signed off on the measures at Monday’s (24 March) Policy and Strategy meeting, although this still needs to be formally ratified at Council’s ordinary meeting on 14 April.

Rates had been projected to increase by 8.66% according to year two of the council’s Long-Term Plan (LTP). However, to minimise the impact on ratepayers, councillors asked officers to find ways of getting it under 6%.

Measures approved included cutting some community funding, reducing roading and district plan reserves, re-allocating some budgets and removing budgets where government policy has changed.

South Taranaki District Mayor Phil Nixon says the savings identified are practical and realistic.

“As a Council we have always been conscious about keeping costs down. It’s our responsibility to be as prudent and careful as we possibly can be with every ratepayer dollar we spend,” says Nixon.

“I believe we now have a better balance between providing the funding needed to maintain our current services and infrastructure to a good standard while keeping rates more affordable for our community. We will continue to prioritise and focus on the areas our community have told us they want to see improvements such as better roads, our towns amenities looking good and an improved dog control service. However, affordability is a big issue for many in our community and with the cost of living being what it is, now is not the time to be burdening our ratepayers with high rate increases,” he says. “With these savings I can confidently say to ratepayers that we have been rigorous in our efforts to identify and eliminate unnecessary expenditure, and demonstrate to them our commitment to being good, prudent governors of their money.”