Two councillors' objections have failed to derail plans for residential rates increases of up to 18% across the Queenstown Lakes district.
The increases, detailed in the Queenstown Lakes District Council's draft 2008-09 annual plan, were discussed during an extraordinary council meeting in Queenstown yesterday.
Councillors voted in favour of adopting the draft plan for consultation, with only minor amendments.
Cr Cath Gilmour told the meeting she would abstain from voting on the recommendation to adopt the draft annual plan for public consultation, while Cr Vanessa Van Uden announced she would vote against it.
Cr Van Uden said she did not want to be "tacitly supporting'' double-digit rates increases, when "over-the-top'' council staff costs were increasing by $493,000, to 97.7 full-time equivalent positions.
She was also concerned overhead costs of $903,000 for the council's regulatory arm - Lake Environmental - showed that organisation was "top heavy''.
Plans to spend $1.04 million on a second Lake Hayes reservoir, to ease community water supply problems, would also unfairly penalise residents who complied with water consumption guidelines, she believed.
She also objected to a $100,000 budget for green waste research and the non-tendering of water and wastewater capital work projects.
"I can't support double-digit rates increases for our residential community,'' she said.
On Tuesday, it was announced some residential property owners in Kingston faced increases of up to 18.15%, while increases of 13.09% in Queenstown and 10.79% in Wanaka were also proposed, depending on property values.
Some ratepayers in Arrowtown faced increases of up to 11.94%, while those in Glenorchy faced 10.98% increases, Hawea 12.97% and Albert Town 12.06%.
The draft proposed an average rates increase of 6.8%, but residential property owners faced bigger increases, following the introduction of a kerbside recycling scheme and plans for a new refuse collection scheme.
Crs Gilmour and Van Uden also questioned why more detail was not provided in the annual report to explain how money was being spent, after confusion arose over a $5 million budget for "roading reconstruction'', and other generic titles.
"Is there a balance between having wads and wads and wads of information [and] giving people a wee bit more?'' Cr Van Uden asked.
However, QLDC mayor Clive Geddes and Mr Burns said expanding the detail provided could "double'' the size of the draft, which already stood at 147 pages.
"It's a question of how big do you want this document to be, and if in the process of providing more detail you don't actually create more confusion,'' Mr Geddes said.
Members of the public have until May 5 to make submissions before a public hearing on May 15 and 16. The final document is expected to be adopted at a council meeting on June 27.
