Waikato Regional Council recently confirmed its proposed Annual Plan budget.
Stu Kneebone
Thanks to a lot of good work by our chief executive and his staff, careful consideration by councillors and following a series of workshops with councillors last year, we collectively managed to reduce the rates increase proposed in the Long Term Plan from 8.6 percent down to a proposed 5.9 per cent.
The proposals associated with this change will be consulted on in April.
One key issue that I do want to highlight is the changes we are making to the way public transport is managed and funded.
Regional councils are responsible for the planning, management and provision of public transport in the region.
Traditionally this has often meant that district and city councils have collected the rates funding for public transport in their area or district and handed this over to the regional council to operate the service.
On the (Regional) buses at Hamilton Transport Centre. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
This has invariably meant it was a complicated system with a range of different approaches in terms of how the rates portion to fund public transport was collected.
This also made it challenging to plan transport across the region, and didn’t contribute to providing an ideal network of services throughout the Waikato.
In an effort to improve things, the regional council resolved via the recent Long Term Plan consultation process to take over the rating to fund public transport across the region.
As a reminder, there are essentially three components that make up the public transport funding system.
One is the fare component paid by the actual bus users. The remaining portion (which is effectively the main component) is 51 per cent funded by the government’s National Land Transport Fund (road users) and the remaining 49 per cent is funded by councils (ratepayers).
The rates component has traditionally been collected differently (for example, general rates, targeted rates or per-property charges) depending on the approach of the particular council.
With the regional council taking over the rating across the region for public transport, a decision has to be made as to how we do this. Last year the council spent some time engaging with other councils across the region to understand their views.
Following this consultation, we are proposing to rate for public transport across the Waikato via a per-property charge applied to all ratepayers across whole region.
There is also an option for a capital value charge to apply for Hamilton City ratepayers.
This per-property charge will be different, depending on which part of the region you are in, given this affects your likelihood and ability to use public transport.
This does mean that areas with no bus services do pay something, recognising that public transport does take cars off the road, and thus does provide some benefits for everyone.
In addition to this, New Zealand Transport Agency has directed that councils are expectedto increase the private share component (bus fares) of public transport funding.
In response to this, the council is proposing to increase public transport fares by 11.4 per cent from July 1 to reflect inflationary increases in public transport operating costs and to meet the government targets.
Fares will then increase by 10 per cent a year in the four subsequent years.
Formal consultation on these options will be undertaken in March or April of this year, providing an opportunity for public feedback to council.
We will be looking to adopt the 2025/26 annual plan budget in May.
On the (Regional) buses. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
