Central Otago District councillors considered the organisation’s draft budget for the delivery of the draft Annual Plan 2023-24 at Wednesday’s (March 8) council meeting.

The Annual Plan reflects the work programmes previously consulted on by council, but inflationary pressures have pushed the delivery costs higher than anticipated when the Long-term Plan was approved in 2021.

Councillors discussed what a council spokesperson called “known unmanageable inflationary increases” driving the proposed rates rise of 10.4 per cent across the district, up from the 7.6 per cent previously predicted.

The CODC spokesperson said the increase takes into account “increases in insurance renewal premiums, the revaluation of council property and waste management assets that have pushed up depreciation expenses”. 

Increased standards and associated compliance costs are also said to be contributing factors. 

Pools are cited as one example of the council’s operations where increases are having an impact, with chemical expenses doubling in some instances. 

Another example is in waste management, due to changes in the Emissions Trading Scheme and council providing an increased level of service from 1 July 2023 with the additional organics bin. 

The draft budgets will now be presented to each community board for consideration. 

Pending approvals, the final budgets will come back to council for approval to go out for consultation with the wider community at its March 30 meeting.