Long Term Plan Consultation 2024
As some of you may know, there is currently the consultation open on the Tasman Long Term Plan proposal. I simply wanted to reiterate that anybody is free to provide their submission in the form they choose, irrespective of TDC's tick the box approach.
Here is Councillor Greening's comment that we think is worth sharing:
The full council meeting of 28 March 2024 contained a very frank assessment of councils current financial position – and the reading should be a concern for all ratepayers. According to staff “Councils projected financial position raises several concerns as financial pressures and unbudgeted expenditure impact on the Council.” A message I have tried to convery during the LTP workshops and why I could not support its final form.
In my opinion, TDC finances look precarious. Staff's advice to get out of this position was to “focus on efforts to enhance income and control spending” (of current budgets). In response, I noted the absence of any advice to "reduce" budgets or costs. And we need to stop continually reaching into the pockets of ratepayers to "enhance (TDC's) income".
I also highlighted that I had provided several ideas (as a good "community guardian") to significantly reduce costs (eg, don't hire an extra 50 staff over the next 3 years, and reduce the 150 staff increase from the last LTP), but the mayor, CEO, and the majority of councilors have refused to entertain any of theses ideas.
I also suggested the 'dynamic rates cap' (in the proposed LTP) should be ditched for a 'hard' rates cap (3%). Not only does a 'dynamic rates cap' incentivise councillors to spend more money on nice to have community facilities we cannot apparently afford - it doesn't drive prioritisation of spending.
Finally, I suggested that we will not contain spending if we keep lifting the debt cap. It was raised by $50 million 3 years ago in the last LTP, and we have already consumed it, and are looking to lift it again to take the pressure off councils continual spending habits.
Of course the mayor did not like my criticism of the LTP proposals and shut me down in making my suggestions on how we could meet the staff's call for help in containing costs.