Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

One submitter used several creative ways to say doggy doo. Another submitter put a councillor in his place, as he did when he taught him back in primary school. We also had a high school speech champion and loads of other surprises.

Close to 100 people voiced their views of council's draft budget for 2014/2015 during four days of public hearings this week. We received 783 public submissions in total.

Projects such as the CBD tertiary education facility, the marine precinct, and Greerton Library received a lot of support. The main opposition raised by submitters was the cessation of council's mobile library, reducing pool hours, increasing fees for council venues, and increasing mobile shop fees.

The biggest surprise was the lack of opposition to the proposed stormwater levy – average $100 per property. Fixing the $200 million stormwater problem across the city is a priority. We wanted to know if raising $5 million each year through a levy (in addition to the $5 million loan) was the best way to fund it. I'll let you know how the discussions go in future columns.

I'm impressed with the maturity of most submitters. Where problems were raised, most submitters provided creative and practical ways to address them. We cannot afford to put all of the great ideas into action straight away. But these ideas will give us food for thought as we develop the 10-year plan.

As I mentioned in March, I don't believe any elected member is 100 per cent happy with the draft budget. This is expected when 11 people with different election promises are asked to produce a budget just a few months after the election. Changes to the budget, in response to your submissions, are likely.

To end on a light note: my favourite submission was the lady who requested more concerts at ASB Arena, apart from Meat Loaf – awesome.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.y1ounger.voice.