Simon has done a lot of work during the Long-Term Plan Consultation period 2024.
Obviously, being the council and their impeccable transparency Simon has done his best to waft through the numbers in what we can only assume as hours and hours of work. We assume, by the questioning of the council at the end, and the interest that the councillors showed and their interest in what the council books said and what Simon had to offer.
Simon has made it very clear, and we agree, that he has only been able to work with the numbers he has found and were provided in the LTP and supporting documents, and that these numbers were based on information prior to any adjustments done after the consultation period.
Thanks Simon for agreeing for this to be shared, being the author of the submission and submitter at the UHCC Oral Submission.
Simon McGruer's UHCC Long Term Plan Submission 21st May 2024
Following supporting articles from NZ Empowered.
The numbers which Simon has provided are alarming in NZ Empowered's opinion. Yet our mayor has been very vocal about a $1.3m budget error from Wellington Water, which we calculate to be approx $433k per annum extra. This would be on top of Upper Hutt's $39m bill set by Wellington Water over the next 3 years, which is the lowest out of the councils in the Wellington Region. A $1.3m error appears minor in comaprison to the numbers Simon is refeering too.
Perhaps the Upper Hutt City Council should listen to this submission again, after rates increase were set at 5.81% in 2023 and look again at their 2021-2031 LTP which limited the rates increases to 6% per year One needs to ask the question why in 2024 are rates being increased to 19.93% and in some cases higher.
Here is a graph which NZ Empowered have produced which we believe shows some people have been hit with above 19.93% and some are below the 19.93%. It seems that those with lower CV's are being hit hardest.
