Porirua City Council (PCC) is undertaking a consultation process that will provide input to updating its forthcoming Long-Term Plan, 2018-19 Budget, and assessment of rates for that year. Documentation out for consultation suggests that the rural ratepayer will be hit with an extra 4.75% in each of the next three years and that business rates will be realigned. This will take Porirua’s rural rates to a little over double those levied in neighbouring Kapiti!
Currently there is no indication what will happen to rates in the urban areas. However, PCC has a commitment to achieve a balanced budget within the next few years and it seems likely that the Council Officers will again seek an increase of the order of 5% rather than looking at trimming expenditure and ensuring effectiveness and efficiency.
So we could be faced with yet another year where rates inflation far exceeds increases in income. This is particularly tough on beneficiaries and those on fixed incomes such as pensioners. PCC is already one of the most heavily rated local authorities in the country. Yet Council and its Officers seem determined to continue to widen the gap between PCC and its neighbouring authorities, further increasing regional disadvantage in terms of competitiveness and associated creation of new jobs to the area.
Our Northern Ward is served by four Councillors
- Anita Baker
- Ross Leggett
- Dame Beverley Wakem
- Dale Williams
These good and well-meaning folk have made it very clear at Residents Association meetings and other forums that we can rely on them “to act in residents’ best interests”: they are after all our only voice. These four Councillors represent 40% of the Council who, together with the Mayor, will make the decisions. With the support of a mere two of their colleagues from other Wards, they would have a majority vote. No doubt their two colleagues in the Western Ward will also be very aware of the plight of their rural constituents.
It will be interesting to see how supportive they are of the rural residents they represent. Is it fair to charge the 611 rural households for the total cost for maintenance of rural roads? Absolutely if it is those residents who contribute the vast bulk of the wear and tear. But what about the damage done by the massive and ongoing amount of through traffic on roads such as the Paekakariki Hill Road and Grays Road and, of course, the huge lorries working on the Transmission Gully development? This appears to have been conveniently forgotten by Council Officers preparing the documents for consultation and in subsequent consideration by Councillors!
Residents of the Northern Ward should expect their representatives, the Northern Ward Councillors, to act in the best interests of their constituents and not to follow their own political leanings. They represent us and not themselves. We expect them to vote down these inequitable proposals, ever conscious of the needs their many constituents on fixed or low incomes, for whom perpetual rates increases have become a financial joke and a real financial burden.
We will watch with keen interest the debate and voting, which we expect to be by a show of hands and not anonymously, trusting that our Councillors will do the right thing. The community expects transparency and needs to be kept informed.
Andrew Weeks, Chair, Porirua Economic Development Group (PEDG)