Rodney could face further rate increases

Rodney property owners could see their rates increase beyond the planned 5.8 per cent, after Auckland Council cited a $10 million budget gap and mounting financial pressures.

At the governing body meeting on November 28, chief financial officer Ross Tucker said that rates increases could exceed the Long Term Plan’s (LTP) proposed 5.8 per cent rates increase for the next financial year.

Tucker said preliminary work for the council’s annual plan had identified a $10 million budget gap and it was still unclear how some financial pressures would impact the annual plan.

“We have got some challenges to work through. We might need to adjust some services, some [capital expenditure] and the last cab off the rank, as always, is do we need to adjust rates,” Tucker said.

At a previous council meeting, council’s recovery office signalled that buyouts for storm-affected properties had been underestimated.

“It is going to mean more property buyouts, we have already seen that. That means potentially moving money from some of the longer term infrastructure [projects] into buying properties now. This means more money going out earlier, which means higher interest costs. There will be impacts on the annual budget.”

Tucker cautioned against suggestions for small rates increases for things like events funding or transport projects.

“If you add up a bunch of small increases, it could add up to a number where we are suddenly heading towards a double-digit rate increase.”

Councillor Julie Fairey said she wanted to understand the costs tied to the buyouts.

“We are likely to have increased maintenance of these sites purely because there are more of them and also because it will take more time to clear more sites,” Fairey said.

Chief executive officer Phil Wilson said council would be receiving an update at a later meeting this year, but a fuller answer would be coming in February.

“We are on a February timeline to report back on how we are going to treat the residual land post the buyouts,” Wilson said.

“[Answers] might come in two parts.”