Bernie Wanden: Horowhenua mayor on the Government keeping tabs on local council spending

The Government's keeping tabs on how much councils are spending and where the money's going.

Yearly performance metrics are out for each council, showing rates rises, revenue, debt levels, expenditure, and whether the budget's balanced.

Monitoring comes as the Government considers a rates cap.

Horowhenua mayor Bernie Wanden says successive years of underfunding and borrowing has contributed to the region's notable debt levels.

"Obviously, there will be nuances and context that will not be able to be read into the figures. I think, give it a bit of time, we'll get used to this and the tables could provide some useful information."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
So the government has issued its first report card for
all our councils. Local Government Minister Simon Watts has released
a document comparing councils on their rates, revenue, debt and spending.
Five of our councils have more than twice as much
debt as the annual revenue. So we've decided to talk
to one and the one we're talking to is Hola
for Newer and the mayor of Hotafduer is Mayor Bernie

(00:24):
Warden Wondon who joins you know, Bernie good afternoons. So
your debt to revenue number is two hundred and thirteen
point seven percent, so that's pretty high. And what's that about.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yes, look it is high. We actually absolutely acknowledge that
it is high. And in fact these figures are almost
out of date. This is at during twenty twenty four.
Our figure at Durne twenty twenty five is actually one
hundred and ninety seven percent, so it has come down
a bit. But look, we still acknowledge that our debt
levels high and that is probably successive years of either

(01:03):
underfunding depreciation or having our operating expenses more than what
we were getting in revenue and then borrowing to cover that,
and that over a number of years meant that we
were able to keep rates down, but it meant that
we had to borrow money to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
As a snapshot of just one year really an accurate
way of determining whether the council's finances because you have
hangovers from decades of under investment or decades of under
revenue raising, is it really actually indicative of the financial
state that you're really in.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think over time it will give us good trends
taking a snapshot. This is the first time we've ever
done this, so obviously there will be nuances and contexts
that will not be able to be readen to the figures.
I think over a little bit of time will get
used to this and the tables could provide some real
useful information. We're not certainly against having this sort of benchmarking.

(02:06):
I think it's great for the rate payer to be
able to see where your councils sit and amongst you know,
comparative group, and I'm sure in time it will prove
to be very valuable.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Very good stuff. Now the government's talked about rates caps,
so you know, is that viable if you've actually still
got this huge debt you have to service.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, it would be helpful if we knew what the
detail of the rates capping was. In the places that
we see rates capping, especially in states in Australia and
parts of the UK, it has caused some real unintended
consequences that have meant that services have dropped financially, councils

(02:48):
have been almost at a brink of going bankrupt. So
you know, there's there's a lot to understand and unpack
in terms of rates what rates capping means. So you know,
we just don't know that detail.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
You Well, Bernie, good luck going forward because you've got
some big debts to have pay down and you've got
some big work to do and we wish you only
the best of lack. And that is Bernie Wanden, who
is the mayor of honafor Neuit.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
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