powerpoint presentation• ‘average’ rate for 2018/19 proposed to be $371 • 70% of ratepayers...
TRANSCRIPT
Getting the Regional Council fit for purpose
• All budgets, projects and activities reviewed
• Funding reprioritised and $500k savings made
• Reviewed approach to compliance, land management, communications & IT
• Re-organisation to improve effectiveness of council operations
• Proposing to increase user charges for consents to 80% recovery, additional $400k revenue
• Attracting third party funding – central government, corporate, philanthropic
• Actively investing unallocated capital from Ruataniwha Scheme
• Increased Council borrowing to spread costs for intergenerational projects
• ‘Average’ rate for 2018/19 proposed to be $371
• 70% of ratepayers will pay less than $300 in 2018/19
• The ‘average’ increase for 49,552 ratepayers will be $1 per week or less.
• Half of all ratepayers will pay 60 cents or less per week more.
Civil Defence
• We propose to take full responsibility for collecting regional Civil Defence rates.
• HBRC provides CDEM for the whole region, previously done by each individual council, saves $100k p.a.
• Has improved capability and level of service, consistent with approach nationally
• This is 5.2% of the total proposed rate increase
• Net neutral for ratepayers, so actual net increase in rates overall is 13.8%
• Funding also included for continuing coastal hazard work: $3/household in Hastings and Napier
Working with Tāngata Whenua
• HB Regional Planning Committee Act 2015 requires co-governance of policies and rules for managing our environment
• All regional Treaty Settlements require HBRC to have formal relationships with settlement entities
• Most HBRC legislation requires particular engagement
• Tangata whenua bring kaitiakitanga perspective & long view
• 2% of the total rate increase is to fund tangata whenua participation and dedicated HBRC staff for more effective partnership
Macro-InvertebrateCommunityIndex: Measure of ecological health
• 277,000 hectares of highly erosion prone land in HB
• Losing over 5 million tonnes of sediment annually from hill country
• If all planted then a 90% reduction in sediment
• Targeted treatment of 100,000 hectares forecast to reduce sediment by 50 - 60%
• 1.1 million tonnes of soil each year from stream bank erosion - this could reduce by 70% once planted vegetation is mature
Land and water
• 9.5% of the proposed rate increase is to more urgently fix issues in our environment
• Riparian fencing, planting, wetlands and reforestation, subsidised up to 75%: $30m over 10 years + potential commercial forestry
• Farm Environment Plans, interest free and paid off on rates
• Future Farming Trust to help uptake of good practice
Why now?
• We are required to improve swimmability & health of our rivers
• Shading and planting reduce contaminants, weed and algae
• Climate change expected to bring more intense and frequent heavy rainfall, accelerated hill country and stream bank erosion
Current level of riverbank erosion
=282,000 t/yr
50% Riparian Fencing= 179,000 t/yr
100% Riparian Fencing= 75,000 t/yr
Biodiversity
• Proposal to set up and fund HB Biodiversity Foundation to ‘crowd in’ other funders: corporate, philanthropic
• 72% of NZ native freshwater fish species are ‘threatened’ or ‘at risk’
• Rats, stoats, and possums kill about 25 million native birds nationwide every year, many threatened.
Biosecurity
• Possum control has been very successful, we plan to extend this programme to tackle goats, stoats, ferrets, feral cats and hedgehogs
• Expand Cape to City to wider region
Setting environmental limits…
and enforcing them
Regulation: Science, Planning, Consents, Compliance
• HBRC required to set water quality and quantity limits for all waterbodies and have plans underway to improve degraded ones by 2025
• Forestry to be regulated – establishment and harvest - from May 2018
• Need to monitor and enforce new rules and more complex consents
• More regulation relies on increased science monitoring and reporting
• 1,100 farm environment plans required in Tukituki catchment by 31 May
• Heretaunga TANK Plan Change will contain extensive new policies and rules for all four catchments, aim to notify later this year
Sustainable Homes
• Extend the successful HeatSmart programme to make properties more sustainable and resilient
• No direct cost to ratepayers, fully cost recovered, but ‘leverages’ the HBRC’s ability to borrow for community benefit, especially where there are upfront affordability issues.
• Solar hot water heating
• PhotoVoltaic cells
• Domestic water storage
• Septic tank replacement
Tuki Tuki Catchment Plan (Plan Change 6)• Farm Environment and Phosphorus/Sediment Management Plans
required for accessing fencing/planting subsidies
• Mandatory stock exclusion/fencing required under Tuki Tuki Plan
• Tuki Tuki first catchment for mandatory FEMPs and stock exclusion so at front of queue, and CHB a major recipient of HBRC funds
• $5 million available for feasibility studies of water storage and augmentation, Ruataniwha zone a priority, eg. aquifer recharge, deep groundwater or smaller storage for low flow augmentation
• Science package includes new Ruataniwha Groundwater Model and SkyTEM survey
• Sustainable Homes initiative will assist small communities such as Tikokino and Ongaonga with septic tank replacement and rain tanks
• Farmer-led Future Farming Trust will assist with HB specific knowledge sharing and research
Hawke’s Bay Tourism
• Stepping back the funding of HB Tourism is a 1.6% rates reduction to help us focus on environmental priorities.
• HB Tourism has been very successful and industry is growing well, is it time for the primary beneficiaries – the industry – to fund a greater share?
Local Government Funding Agency• Joining this scheme has no upward impact on rates
or debt but gives us access to lower interest rates for borrowing
• Very low risk, 54 other councils in scheme, common overseas model
Community meetings
Tell us what you think!
• Online
• In person – at community events
• In writing
• Facebook posts
Send us your feedback by Monday 23 April 2018