Rising rates spur frustrated Mauger to appeal for 'frugal' approach

Some Christchurch City councillors are under the belief money falls out of the sky, mayor Phil Mauger says.

The council will have to grapple with another rates blowout in the coming financial year, as staff briefed councillors this week that the forecast 8.48 percent average rates increase for 2025/26 is already set to climb to 9.06 percent.

In June, the council signed off on a long-term plan which saw average residential rates climb by 9.9 percent this financial year, 8.48 next year and dropping to 5.8 after that.

However, the latest figures showed the 8.48 percent figure had climbed to 9.06 and the 5.8 percent forecast for 2026/27 was now up to 8.5 percent.

Mauger said the council had to at least bring the figure back down to 8.48 percent, if not lower, before consulting with the public next year.

"Some councillors just think that money falls out of the sky," he told RNZ.

"I'm being very realistic on what I want. But, as I say - I don't like hiding behind it - but, I'm only one voice around the table and I haven't got a a majority council and there's a lot of things there we can say 'right, do we really need it?' And, if we haven't got the dough, we don't really need it."

The council committed to not cut service levels during the long-term plan process and changing that would mean going through the process again.

But Mauger said there was fat in the system which could still be cut without the need to substantially deviate from the long-term plan.

"We've just got to look at . . . every which way we can save some money because people pay the rates and expect the service," he said.

"The last thing we want to do is chop service, so we've got to chop some other things that until we get some money, let's just high-ho on these projects."

While interest rates had started to drop, ratepayers' budgets were still tight and the council had "to be frugal", he said.

Election year looms

Next year is an election year and Mauger was handed the mayoral chains in 2022 after promises of keeping rates down.

Asked how he felt to have been in charge during some of the city's highest rates rises - though it was not unique to Christchurch - he responded: "Not very good".

"When I stood I said two or three percent and, hand on heart, I thought it could. But then we had insurance, which our premiums went up to about $40 million for the year. We've got interest rates, which have gone up and 25 cents in every rate dollar that we collect goes in debt servicing.

"We've got to get our debt down, so if we stop spending money on things and pay a bit of stuff off, sell a bit of - not strategic assets - but sell a bit of stuff, we've got lying around . . . and just tidy stuff up."

He did not have the majority around the council table to achieve some of his aims, Mauger said.

"The problem is I'm one short around the table for some of the things I want to do and so if I'd had another person or another vote to get some things done we would have been able to play with different things and and would have definitely got rates down lower last time.

"We have got some councillors that just want to carry on and do stuff. You go to an Annual Plan meeting - 'Oh, we'll put this in, it's only another .1 of a percent' and you do that 10 times and you've got another one percent.

"It might only sound a little thing at the time, but all of a sudden it adds up and that's where we get in strife."

Mauger had not yet decided whether he would stand for re-election next year, but accepted the big rates hikes from this term would hang over those that did.

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