How to address burgeoning council debt was among the trickier and more divisive questions put to Whakatāne’s mayoral candidates on Tuesday night.

More than 40 people attended the mayoral candidate forum held by residents’ association Whakatāne Action Group (WAG) at the Whakatāne Little Theatre.

The majority of the audience were either members of WAG or other local government candidates, with a small sprinkling of interested members of the public not yet decided on who to vote for.

They were given plenty to chew over as MC Bronwen Foxx delivered eight questions to the six mayoral candidates during the three-hour event before opening up to the audience for further questions.

Candidates were confronted with the $177.5 million debt council carried, as of June 30.

“That’s an average of about $11,000 for each rate paying unit in the district,” Ms Foxx said.

Mayoral candidates later confirmed the council was paying over $9 million a year on finance costs for this debt and this was expected to rise to $18 million by 2034.

“How would you address the seemingly ever-increasing debt?” Ms Foxx asked on behalf of WAG.

Current Mayor Victor Luca said showing restraint was part of the answer.

He also felt the council needed to look elsewhere to find money.

The council was currently looking at ways it could make better use of properties it owned a project he would like to see through to completion.

He also mentioned solar panels the council had recently placed on several of its buildings, which would eat into the council’s $1 million a year energy costs.

Andrew Iles spoke about being cautious with spending and sticking to core business, such as infrastructure.

He said with resource consents about to expire on about 12 drinking and waste facilities a project such as the $100 million-plus Rex Morpeth redevelopment was, “at this time, beyond our means”.

He did, however, support the current spending on maintenance of the hall.

Nandor Tanczos said most of what council spends was already on core services.

He said people needed to think a bit differently about council debt than they do about household debt.

“In a household, the idea is that you pay it off, so by the time you retire you’ve paid your house off. The council doesn’t retire, and the council doesn’t die. We use debt to pay for intergenerational assets.” 

He was, however, opposed to borrowing to pay for operational deficits.

“To me, that’s crazy. It’s like taking a bank loan to pay for your groceries.”

He said the Government needed to take GST off rates and pay rates on Crown land, something the local government sector as a whole was lobbying around.

Wilson James agreed with Mr Tanczos. He said the debt levels were a real concern to him as they had “ballooned out of proportion in the last three years”.

“We are continually just borrowing to keep the rates lower, and we can’t keep on doing that. Somewhere along the line everyone has to face reality.”

Mark Inman’s answer was about relationships and growth.

“We need the numbers in the town to spread the load, but it’s listening to locals as to how that grows.”

Philip Jacobs said the council had to deal with the card it had been dealt.

"There is no white knight that's gonna ride out of the sunset with a $200 million gift. There is no free money growing on trees in Wellington. The best you'll ever get out of Wellington is a few extra crumbs,” he said.

He said staff cuts were needed as ballooning staff numbers were partly driving the councils $10 million-plus operating deficit.

“But there are a lot of unnecessary aspirational projects on the horizon, adding up too many 10s of millions of dollars, even within three waters.

He wanted to get rid of the Rex Morpeth development project altogether, including the $7 million currently allocated to repairs and maintenance, plan rescaling and a plan to source outside funding.

He also did not support the Matata Wastewater project and disagreed that council should be looking for new revenue sources.

"We tried that with the boat harbour and what a dismal failure that was. It's time for the new council to learn to say that magic word, ‘no’.

Other questions candidates fielded were about the Rex Morpeth Park development, a lack of trust in local democracy, efficiency and openness around operating costs, qualities sought in a chief executive, funding of infrastructure and whether climate change is a job for local government how, as mayors, the candidates would engage with the councillors.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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