Otago regional councillor Michael Laws says the ORC is seriously misaligned from the community that it serves, with its staged three-year rates increases through the Long Term Plan (LTP).

However, the Otago Regional Council (ORC) agreed to drop its rates increase by a further 2% with the new average for year one of the LTP now just 16.3% instead of the original 18%.

Fellow Dunstan ward councillor Gary Kelliher also opposed the increase, and both have voted against the increases for the past three years.

Chair of the finance committee, who led the LTP and from the Moeraki constituency, councillor Kevin Malcolm was the third person to vote against the motion.

Cr Laws told the meeting the ORC had an “extraordinary appetite” for local government and spending other people’s money.

Staff numbers had increased from 300 to 350 and he questioned whether that was necessary or just to fill the new ORC headquarters in Dunedin?

In year two of the LTP, rates would increase 13.8% instead of the 11.2% originally forecast, and in year three the increase dropped down to just 8.7% instead of the proposed 9.4%.

Those new amended figures were made at the LTP deliberations meeting on 29-30 May this year when the finance committee directed council staff on a range of adjustments to the consulted proposed plan.

ORC chair Gretchen Robertson told the meeting the LTP has a “significant focus” on public transport, large-scale environmental project funding and how rates are calculated.

Under the new public transport strategy, there was a need to improve public transport in Dunedin and Queenstown, and by exploring the possibility of new services for Ōamaru, Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell, Balclutha, and Wānaka.