The Waitaki District Council has chopped a proposed rates increase of almost 15% to a 3.8% rise in its draft 2009-10 budget after three days of, at times, heated debate.
Councillors wound up the debate yesterday by cutting both operational budgets and new projects.
At the end of considering the budgets, which resulted in a rise in the total rates take of 8.38%, staff were asked at 1pm to go away and find ways to prune costs and projects even further.
Chief executive Michael Ross said staff had started doing that yesterday morning and asked for guidance on what increase councillors might be looking at, bearing in mind the CPI (cost price index) in October was 5.1%.
After two hours, staff came back with a proposed rates rise of 3.55% by cutting $1.109 million from the budget.
"If you want to make serious inroads on rates, just get on with it," Mr Ross told councillors as they started to debate what staff recommendations should be in or out.
Major items councillors cut from rates were $300,000 for waste minimisation (now to come from reserves), $100,000 in amenity rate projects, $100,000 from the Waitaki Development Board budget, $60,000 in administration costs for the youth council and community development, $24,000 from minor safety road works, $50,000 from coastal erosion work, $20,000 on an aquatic centre project and by increasing income, $35,000 from the information services department, $52,000 from wages and salaries, at least $11,000 by reducing library opening hours, $30,000 by changing insurance cover on properties, $37,000 by reducing mowing of cemeteries, parks and reserves, $25,000 by reducing the number of litter bins at parks and $70,000 by increasing Waitaki lakes camping fees.
Along with smaller items, the savings totalled more than $1 million.
Some of the staff's suggested cuts were left in the budget, which resulted in the 3.8% rise the council will consider on February 3 before the annual plan goes out for public submissions.
Before the meeting adjourned for staff to prepare a list of cuts, Cr Rod Bidois moved the council set a rates rise of 4.5% on which to consult ratepayers, but that was defeated on a vote.
However, councillors went below that with staff recommendations, even though earlier in the day some councillors expressed personal views on a rise ranging from 6% to 7%.
Other councillors pointed out that, at 4.5%, there would be nothing left to consult the community on so it could give its views on what should be in or out of the budget.
Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton at the start of yesterday's meeting acknowledged the council had not yet gone far enough to reduce the projected rates increase.
"I believe we have extraordinary times and we need to make an extraordinary stand," he said.
A lot of people in the community were facing economic difficulties because of global factors and the council had to take that into consideration.
He quoted the Government's Shand report on local body rates, which said the level of rates was not sustainable because they were becoming unaffordable.
Mr Familton said the council needed to consider all possibilities when it came to reducing rates because what was decided for next year would follow on into the next 10 years of the long-term council community plan (LTCCP).
