Long-term plan sets 10 year direction
24 July 2015
At a council meeting on Wednesday [22 July] Rotorua Lakes Council adopted its 2015-2025 Long-term Plan. The majority vote by the mayor and councillors in favour of adoption of the plan was opposed by three councillors, Glenys Searancke, Peter Bentley and Mike McVicker. Cr Rob Kent was not at the meeting.
The long-term plan is the primary document guiding the council's direction for the next ten years. Its formal adoption had been delayed as the Auditor-General's audit team had not earlier been available to provide final sign-off, meaning the plan had previously been adopted in principle, and subject to the audit opinion. The council has now received a clear audit opinion from the Office of the Auditor-General.
A feature of the new long-term plan is, for the first time in many years, a return to a balanced budget position. This will be achieved in seven of the ten years covered by the plan, and close to being balanced in the remaining three years (2018, 2022 and 20230).
Mayor Steve Chadwick said it was the first time a new long-term plan had been prepared under the new process set out in recent changes to legislation.
This plan addresses big challenges - like funding, balancing the budget, wastewater, earthquake-risk buildings - and is prudent, said Mrs Chadwick.
It's not filled with wants.' It responds to needs' - to maintain and future-proof the district's infrastructure, and its reputation as a great place to invest, live and work.
Projected developments include the Aquatic Centre, Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre, Kuirau Park and Library/Child Health Centre, and all require partnership funding to make them happen.
The plan supports our priority 2016 goals - developing a city heart that attracts people and vibrancy; developing our economic base; supporting residential renewal and sustainable infrastructure; and an affordable and effective council.
Our organisation has now taken $8.3 million out of its annual budget and the target is to remove a further $1 million a year throughout the plan's life. These are significant moves that will put behind us a past that saw the council borrowing to fund operations, due to a desire to maintain rates at artificially low levels. That approach could not continue.
And while Council is reducing debt and inefficiency, this plan still encourages and supports growth and vitality in our district.
Mayor Chadwick described the plan as being about facing reality and getting the council back on course.
The long-term plan confirms a one-off seven per cent increase in the total amount of rates to be collected in the 2015/16 financial year. This was deemed necessary to get the council back into a balanced budget position, and to enable much-needed public infrastructure upgrades and renewals to be undertaken.
Rates increases for individual properties in the coming year, will vary depending on the ratepayer category they fall into and the impact of new property revaluations being used from the beginning of the 2015/16 year. The first quarterly rates instalment under the new rate levels will be due for payment by 20 August.
The one-off seven per cent increase in the total amount of rates to be collected in 2015/16 is expected to mean rates increases can be held closer to annual inflation levels in subsequent years.
Mayor Steve Chadwick said decision-making for the long-term plan had been the most challenging and complex process faced by Rotorua's council for many years.
Rates rises for the coming year won't be an easy ask for anyone in our community. But the unrealistic mentality of recent years when rates increases were kept as low as 0.9%, while politically expedient, put Council into a financially unsustainable position. We've acknowledged that we have to take a short-term hit. Our future prosperity depends on that.
When elected, this council agreed that debt, efficiency and effectiveness were our major priorities. That hasn't changed and, after a period of time with little or no major work on our assets, we're now at a point where we have a lot of capital work that's needed to protect those assets.
The new long-term plan will provide an environment that will enable the investment we need to secure Rotorua's future, said Mrs Chadwick.
Rotorua Lakes Council's full 2015-2025 Long-term Plan document can be viewed online