Selwyn’s Mayor says it’s too soon to put out a rate rise number.

First-term mayor Lydia Gliddon says there is a budget process to go through before determining what the rate rise will be in the next annual plan.

“A rates figure is an outcome of decisions, not a starting point,” she said.

Gliddon has stated her intent is to reduce the rate rise from the forecast 13.3% to under 10%.

Any rise would come into effect on July 1 this year.

Unsuccessful council candidate, Zoran Rakovic, has been on social media calling for the mayor and her new council to provide an exact figure, suggesting their intended single digit promise isn’t a true number but “PR blur”.

“Single-digit rates rise sounds nice, until you realise it could mean anything from 1% to 9%,” he said.

Gliddon said his “timing is a little bit off”.

“We have a process to step through.

“When I refer to a focus on keeping rates as low as practicable, including within a single-digit range, that reflects an aspiration informed by discipline and trade-offs, not a promise detached from reality.”

The first step is setting the direction of the budget, which starts on Wednesday, to allow the staff to do the work, she said.

“Before any draft rates number can be set, the council must first agree on preferences, what services we protect, where we may pause or reprioritise, and how we balance affordability.

“Only once that direction is clear can the staff draft budgets that reflect council’s intent.

“From those budgets, a draft rates impact can then be calculated and tested.

“This sequencing matters.”

Starting that process with a predetermined number is almost meaningless until going through the process of knowing what people want or don’t want, she said.

The biggest part of that process for Gliddon and her councillors is their plans for a six-week consultation.

“Ultimately, it’s the community’s budget.

“Once draft proposals are ready, we need the community to review them and have their say to shape the next financial year.”

Through the consultation and hearings, the community will inform councillors direction for the deliberations and final decisions to be made, Gliddon said.

The process will be altered under the incoming rates cap when councils will begin to work through the budget process with a top-end range of 4% from 2029.

Councils will only be allowed to exceed the 4% cap in extreme circumstances, such as natural disasters, or if they gain approval from a government-appointed regulator to address significant past underinvestment in infrastructure.

By Jonathan Leask