A huge bouquet and thank you to the good/great citizens of Brookfield, Otumoetai, Matua and Bethlehem for your immediate response to council's request to conserve water when the main pipeline to the reservoirs broke.
Savings in water consumption of 30 per cent meant no one ran out of water.

Had these savings not been achieved there would have been water shortages for some, pressure drops and possible consequential damage to the system. A bypass pipeline around the break has been installed and engineers are looking at a long term permanent fix around the unstable cliff top where the break happened. Murphy was in full flight during the crisis and the truck bringing the replacement pipe broke down. And then it poured with rain making the unstable ground more risky. Repairs will have cost about $80,000 but that's what council's are for and you pay your rates for. After water/wastewater comes everything else!

Quality not quantity
Last week council wound up its first consideration of next financial years budget. In line with 10 year plan expectations preliminary indications are around a 9.5 per cent increase in rate revenue. This is NOT a foregone conclusion – it could be less or more. Much will depend on submissions from you. David Stewart quite correctly emphasised during discussions that it was the substance of submissions and relevancy rather than the numbers that count with the submission process. If 1000 submissions on a particular issue were received they would not necessarily carry the day. There is still the position of the other 115,000 in the city who didn't submit to be considered. This is the fine balancing line in budget considerations that elected members grapple with during the annual plan.

Budget talks underway
This council has dealt with issues faced in this first budget round in a sensible businesslike manner for the most part. It's quite apparent the effect past council's majority decision spend ups on nice to haves. The May 18, 2005, flood recovery and installation of infrastructure to cope with future flooding has also bitten deep. Also coming home to roost is 20-30 years of under collection of impact fees. There is no particular source of fault here it's just the way the cookie crumbled. At least the city got some significant contribution to its exploding infrastructure funding requirement but no way has growth paid for growth. There is some small consolation to long term resident ratepayers that at least the newcomers have expanded the rating base.

Who's best to pay?
Initial proposal for Southern Pipeline funding has been set at 68 per cent from impact fees and 32 per cent from rates. It's an inexact science trying to quantify who benefits from what. There is no doubt that those who come in the future benefit hugely and it was council's wish to set those costs where they lie. It's called intergenerational equity. But the Local Government Act specifically stops that. It's nonsense but it's law. So those who come later will pay the same contribution of about $4300. As many as 37,000 new sections are forecast to come on line by 2051. So today's ratepayers, for whom there is some benefit from the Southern Pipeline, will contribute $25 each towards the bill. Hopefully this will also save legal action from developers over the divvy up – but Murray Guy says a $30,000-50,000 estimated legal fee bill might be a good investment if we won. Yeah right! Estimated legal bills expand exponentially from experience and usually the arguments end up being split down the middle. We'll see what reaction we get – as I've said, nothing is set in stone.

Impact fees
A complex situation surrounding West Bethlehem has a suggested resolution. It's the newer area of the shopping centre towards Te Puna – around 200 sections. In the 90s, the Bethlehem development was the subject of Environmental Court action by Bethlehem iwi Ngati Kahu. It was a long drawn out process. Consequently development in Bethlehem was staged. Today impact fees in the Bethlehem area range from $13,500 to $41,000 per section for West Bethlehem. Unsurprisingly no one builds there so council has some $20 million infrastructure and no impact fees coming in to pay for it (infrastructure is not all for West Bethlehem!) To cut a long story short council has cut impact fees for this area back to $26,500 per section to get things moving and spread the rating base as noted previously. This transfers about $5 million to ratepayers, about $700,000 a year or just under one per cent on your rates. Had council not acted the debt would have compounded (with no one paying impact fees) and ratepayers would have ended up with it anyway. At the other end of town down at Papamoa the proposed Wairakei development council discussed the possibility of a reverse situation where to keep impact fees down for repairs into the future as the structures fail. This has happened in the past.

No one's riding the bus
Rick Curach asked council if it had the appetite to revisit the decision to proceed with the Arataki Community Centre in view of the cost. A wide ranging discussion saw no one else wanting to change anything. In response to my question staff said that the number of buses running around off peak with no one onboard would continue. It's part of the plan. People would continue to buy cars if there was no bus service. Mayor Stuart Crosby said we can't keep building roads. And there was the matter of transport for the young and elderly. This is an EBOP (regional council) service for which each ratepayer pays $56.96 a year to subsidise. Tauranga City Council ratepayers also pay for bus shelters.

Pulling at purse strings
Animal services report high compliance with registration which has resulted in few problems and a high claim rate at the dog pound. The airport budget (no rates requirement – ever) is most favourable as Greg Brownless noted 'a runway success”. Aquatics will require $2 million plus from ratepayers next financial year – about $40 per ratepayer. Once again this is the result of depreciation on revalued assets being required to be collected in cash. The Art Gallery has confirmed to council it won't be asking for inflation adjustments to it's over $800,000 a year ratepayer funded grant. Their director has gone and there appears to be an acceptance that things need to change on the financial front. Ratepayers will pay over $1.6 million for arts heritage and culture if it all proceeds as per the draft budget.

Next week
Tune in again next week to find out how some, including the government and UNESCO fantasise about a 'free” library service, that really costs $6.8 million or $18,630 a day or $140 per ratepayer per year to run in Tauranga.