Council not collecting enough money
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The West Coast Regional Council is being warned it is not collecting enough money from rates, and will need to consider using its investments again to subsidise rates.
The council's financial manager raised the matter as it received a report on its investment portfolio at a Risk and Assurance Committee meeting on February 20.
Committee chairperson Frank Dooley said fund manager JB Were had advised "a cautious stance" over divesting its portfolio.
Acting corporate services manager Aaron Prendergast said the draft long-term plan suggested using funds generated from this portfolio to reduce rates.
The council was "under rating".
"It is timely for some of those decisions around how the portfolio operates," he said.
Dooley said the council's rates income should generate debate again this year.
He repeated his previous stance that council could not afford to keep rates down if it were to meet its statutory responsibilities.
"This council has under rated for a number of years, and as a result we have accumulated a number of deficits," he said.
"As we go through the LTP consultation phase I think this is something that will be … debated quite rigorously."
That included the role of the investment portfolio and rates income, Dooley said.
The ouncil's investment fund closed for the six months to December 31 at just over $13 million, $431,484 higher from July 1 ($12.57m).
Its catastrophe fund sat at $495,817 while awaiting the $1m previously spent in Westport in 2022.
According to the investment report, the council owes $11.4m via the Local Government Funding Agency, and nearly $2m under a 'multi-option credit loan' with Westpac.
Prendergast said the council needed to weigh up its investment and its capacity to use that to subsidise rates increases.
"I think the quantum if we were to reinvest as opposed to subsidise rates is about $1 million a year," he said.
Councillor Brett Cummings said council had previously used investment income to subsidise rates income, but this saw the investment fund growth rate slowly decrease.
Subsequently, the council chose to build up the main fund again, with the last withdrawal in 2021.
Dooley was the sole dissenter against the 2023-24 increase of 16.4%, saying it needed to be much higher.
Meantime, some ratepayers are still unclear what their total 2023-24 rates bills will be.
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
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