Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

When you have a plan, it's good to remember 'everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face” - Mike Tyson. This boxing analogy is relevant to politics.

The world's best ideas are built on top of other good ideas. That's why elected members are finding common themes from our campaigns to deliver a sensible new direction for council. Some of my campaign initiatives can be implemented straight away; other initiatives will have to wait.

Tauranga's soon-to-be-revealed vision will set a strong direction for the city. Last week we had our first chance to discuss what council services will be reduced/increased to achieve this vision.

We've made preliminary decisions on a few projects, but the bulk of our two and a half days were based on presentations from each of council's services. We'll be making decisions on the draft budget for 2014/15 on January 28.

A stand on flooding

We've listened to concerns and we're developing a city-wide approach to flood issues. While Matua and the Mount have been the focus recently, other suburbs may face similar threats in the future. We're modelling suburbs to find the areas of greatest need and developing tailored responses for each. Without going into detail, we'll consider the public responsibility verses actions that landowners may need to do themselves.

We are considering to front-fund the storm water programme through a short-term levy on rating units. This is a bold and honest initiative as the previous council used debt to fund these works. I believe debt should be used to create wealth for the city (‘good debt'). I consider storm water projects to be an example of bad debt, given the historical issues that caused the problem.

Library hokey-cokey

The Greerton Library development has been a political football for more than a decade. I want to avoid the previous cycles of it being included in the draft budget, but it is the first to be cut from the final budget. A decision on whether it's in next year's draft budget will be made in January. Kudos to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for supporting the 900m2 extension.

The types of questions raised by other elected members at the December meeting means we need to ensure it's the most cost-effective outcome for an asset that has an expected life of 40 years.

Have a fun and safe festive season.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.