Submission on Gisborne District Council Annual Plan 2023-2024
The following key recommendations are drawn from each of the subsequent sections of this submission:
- That the Council Cap the percentage rates increase to no greater than stated in the Council’s 2021 Long Term Plan for the 2023/24 financial year and reduce expenditure to ensure there is no need for loans to cover revenue shortfall.
- Clearly report the percentage of the total rates revenue that the Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC) makes up in the Consultation Document.
- Provide transparency and clarity on how rates are used by including a table of rates on benchmark properties or examples of itemized rates bills assessed on different categories of rateable land.
- The Council needs to prioritise spending to focus on its core functions and the fundamental needs of its community such as protection from natural hazards. This includes ensuring that river maintenance is not reduced.
- FFNZ recommends that GDC should fully utilise the UAGC mechanism at 30% of the total rates income, to provide equity between ratepayers.
- That the Council continue to exclude rural landowners from being charged rates for Water Supply, Wastewater and Sewerage, and Stormwater and Drainage activities as they receive no benefit from these services.
- Allocate funding for flood protection works for the whole district and increase efforts to counteract flood events, including riverbed maintenance works.
- Facilitate and encourage gravel extraction and river works by commercial entities and adjoining landowners to minimize costs to ratepayers.
- That any increase in roading debt which is incurred by transportation projects in nonrural areas be recovered from ratepayers in non-rural areas where the transportation projects are situated, unless there is a demonstrable benefit to rural ratepayers.
- That the Council to continue to improve and seal more roads in Gisborne District’s rural areas.
- That the funding for the Forestry Team should be derived from a targeted rate rather than a general increase in rates across the board.
- Develop a rates remission policy for land affected by extreme natural calamities, enabling the remission of rates charges for affected productive land.
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Contact:
Emily McDonald
Policy Advisor, Regional