General rates rise kept to 2% : less than inflation
At this week’s Environment Canterbury council meeting, held in Timaru, councillors agreed to the budget for the draft annual plan for 2008/09. The general rate increase is lower than inflation at 2.2 per cent, close to the 2.1 per cent forecast in the Long Term Council Community Plan. The total budget for the 2008/09 ECan work plan is close to $112 million.
Householders region-wide will be posted a summary draft annual plan at the end of this month, said ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke. “This outlines the year’s programme of work and asks for feedback, for example, on the idea of Clean Heat Projects in Timaru, Ashburton, Rangiora and Kaiapoi. In these places, we have proposed a new targeted or local rate to reduce winter air pollution.”
Sir Kerry said the targeted rate would enable ECan, in conjunction with local district councils and central government organisations like EECA , to help lower-income families install insulation and clean forms of heating. “We need to hear back from those communities about this proposal because it would add to their overall rate paid to ECan for the next ten years. All urban centres need to meet the new national clean air environmental standard of no more than one high pollution day annually by 2013 and this would be one way to help achieve this.”
In Christchurch, the Clean Heat Project targeted rate has been running for four years and has enabled around 12,000 households to switch to clean heat and insulation. Around 26,000 conversions are needed. Already in Christchurch the programme seems to be paying dividends with cleaner, healthier winter air. Last winter Christchurch had its lowest number of high air pollution days since recording began in 1988 – just 13, compared with 51 in 2001. Timaru had 34 high air pollution nights last winter, Ashburton recorded 13, Kaiapoi 19 and Rangiora five.
Other increases in costs which would be covered through ECan targeted rates (ie the people who use the service or who benefit from the service pay for it) are due to:
• Increased costs for bus companies caused by rising fuel prices. Although larger than the amount forecast in the Long Term Council Community Plan, a Christchurch ratepayer living in a house with a capital value of $400,000 will still only pay an extra $2 in 2008/09 for Metro services, from $114 to $116. Timaru, Rangiora and Kaiapoi urban ratepayers are affected to a lesser extent. In 2008/09 an extra $6.38 million above what was forecast, is needed to meet Metro costs and maintain the same level of service. The cost of the Metro system to ECan ratepayers for 2008/09 is more than $18 million with the same amount coming in from Government grants. Users of Metro bus services fund around half the actual service through their ticket costs - another $36 million.
• Proposed Clean Heat Project rates to cover subsidies for the conversion of wood burners and open fires to cleaner forms of heating (Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Ashburton and Timaru). The amounts payable in each town would be $11 per $100,000 capital value of the property rated in Ashburton, $9 per $100,000 in Kaiapoi and Rangiora and $8 per $100,000 for Timaru urban ratepayers.
ECan is also putting more resources into managing water, in line with public expectations, with funding coming from general rates. Sir Kerry said increasing pressure on the region’s resources, in particular water in rivers or underground, meant an additional $1.6 million above what was set out in the Long Term Council Community Plan was needed for council work programmes. Accordingly, ECan is:
• Implementing metering of water takes. Every farmer, together with organisations such as councils, schools and hospitals, with a consent to take water, will in future have a meter providing accurate data on water use. There are around 6000 consents covering water use in Canterbury. Central government legislation requiring water metering will be in force around June 2009.
• Reviewing resource consents in areas of high water demand to protect existing users and reduce environmental impacts of increasing abstractions. Aligning consent conditions with plans and strategies is part of this process.
• Increasing efforts with water management in areas where intensified demand is putting pressure on the water resource.
In order to keep the general rates rise as low as possible and to accommodate environmental priorities, ECan has reduced expenditure on some programmes such as public information and advisory services, earthquake and flood hazard investigations, Sir Kerry said.
Equalisation of rates across the region’s territorial council areas meant fewer sharp rises in rates in a revaluation year. Where strong demand means district revaluations increase more than the regional average, general rate increases can be more than the average in those districts. This was the case in Ashburton district for this rates year, making the ECan general rates increase there around 9 per cent or 27 per cent when the targeted rate for the new Clean Air incentive programme proposed for urban Ashburton is added in. In other examples, like rural areas of Waitaki, Waimate, Mackenzie, Timaru, Wairewa or rural Banks Peninsula, Waimakariri, Hurunui and Kaikoura, ECan total rates (targeted and general) were less than the 2007/08 year, in some cases 25% lower, reflecting overall changes in programmes for those areas.
In Christchurch City there was also a one per cent decrease for city ratepayers overall, including the slight increase in Metro targeted rate and a decrease in the Clean Heat Project targeted rate.
ECan will accept submissions on its draft Annual Plan from March 29 – April 29. See the end of March special edition of Living Here in your letterbox, or read the draft Annual Plan on the ECan web from later this month – www.ecan.govt.nz