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“Communities can only afford so much,” says Waikato Regional Council chief executive Chris McLay (file).
Waikato Regional Council’s chief executive wants the Government to stump up millions of dollars more annually to help the organisation meet new demands under national reforms.
Chris McLay’s bold call – which includes having more tax taken from Waikato actually spent here – came in an interview about his pre-election state of play report on issues facing the council.
“The whole idea that pushing more workload on ourselves but expecting us to find from ratepayers the additional sources of funding to pay for it – I think there’s just got to be an understanding that communities can only afford so much.”
In this pre-election report kōrero, McLay referred to the increased workload from Government reforms, including Three Waters, resource management and a range of other matters.
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The regional council’s chief executive wants millions of dollars extra in Government cash annually to help meet new demands (file).
“It’s hard to disagree with the intent behind the Government’s reform programme…the issue is the scale of change and pace,” he said in the report.
The reform programme also “codified” the way te ao Māori was integrated into public institutions and services “but more support is needed if iwi are to participate fully as we work through the changes”.
More funds were sought from Government to support iwi participation in council processes, while funding and financing mechanisms “beyond property rates” were needed.
Asked how much extra cash the council would like from Government annually, McLay said that depended in part on exactly what the council would be asked to do.
“We’ve had to pick up millions in unfunded mandates so far. There’s many more to come so we would be talking millions.”
More “co-investment” was an option while a targetted recycling of tax dollars taken from Waikato was another suggestion, McLay said.
“They have a big tax take from our region which is much larger than our rates take and they might like to contribute a greater proportion of it.”
One example of where the Government’s contribution had been a bit short was for ongoing maintenance and depreciation funding for flood protection schemes, which helped protect national infrastructure as well as regional.
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Powering the waka – building capacity and capability within Waikato iwi is essential to help them participate properly in government-related work, says the regional council’s CEO (file).
He also wanted to see more support for building capability and capacity within iwi to participate in local government-related work.
“There’s huge expectations on iwi Māori” to participate in reforms and programmes, McLay said.
Funding could help employ people full-time to do this work for iwi rather than relying on volunteers.
“That’s absolutely what it’s about, that’s the upskilling so that the capability is there and they can employ people within their own organisations to be able to contribute what Government would like them to.”
