Napier previews ‘low 20s’ rate increase

We need to have open, transparent and honest conversations about rates. 

Not just in Napier but all over the country. Rates are currently being set for the year. In a tight fiscal climate with rising costs across the board, this means heated discussions and tough decisions around what we can and can’t do in our communities.

There are a number of levers we can use to set rates. Each of them has effects and impacts as we slide the weighting up and down. 

For example, one of the levers is Levels of Service. The higher the level of service, the more cost involved. Weekly curb side rubbish collection for example, instead of monthly, is a higher level of service. Another lever is time. To keep costs down in the year ahead we can push projects further out into the future. They will still happen – and we will still need to invest in them – just not now. Other levers are things like whether we make facilities user-pays and how much we borrow, money we can use now but will have to pay back over time.

In Napier, when we started looking at the year ahead – to do everything in the plan, in the time suggested, to our community’s expected levels of service, with the resources we have – we were facing a 43% rise. That’s unacceptable. We had to adjust the levers. 

By increasing user-pays fees and charges, paying for some costs with loans, and moving some costs to future years we’ve got to a place where we are looking at a percentage increase in the low 20s, with 2% specifically for improving resilience. The proposed increase doesn’t include funding any new activities.

Costs across the board have been pushed up and up. This affects us, our community, and the investment we can put back into our neighbourhoods. There is also an argument that says we haven’t kept annual rates rises high enough; that they should have gone up more than they did every year. We have some ground to cover to make up the difference. We have to keep investing in our neighbourhoods so our kids don’t inherit a similar problem. 

We need to keep up with infrastructure repairs and renewals. We need to upgrade and replace playgrounds. We need to make sure our existing public places and green spaces are well cared for. We need to maintain our 48 public toilets, our 27 playgrounds, our six cemeteries, our libraries, our theatres, our pools and our sportsgrounds. 

Of your weekly investment in your neighbourhood, your city and your district – which equates to an average of $70 per week – about $8 a week pays for roads and footpaths and $8 pays for flushing toilets and the wastewater network. Another $6 pays for drinking water and $10 pays for libraries, sports grounds, cemeteries, theatres and museums. For an investment of $1.25 per week per household we get public toilets.

Alongside asking residents to increase their annual investment, we are looking at how some of our facilities can become financially self-sufficient. We are particularly focused on the ones with high tourism interest. And we’re considering too how to make sure the money in our care is making money itself through savvy financial investments. 

The most important thing you can do is give us your thoughts through our submissions process. As much as we can make tweaks and adjustments, we need your views on what’s important, what our future needs, what our levels of service should be. Social media is a tempting place to share opinions but only submissions can make a difference.