Council’s plan may be unfundable

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: Karen Naylor OPINIONKaren Naylor is a Palmerston North city councillor
• Publication title: Guardian, The

We cannot fund all these projects through normal means, so are looking at external borrowing from the Government to fund some of this

Our auditor has said there is uncertainty and risk about whether our plan is fundable or deliverable.

Some have suggested that if we can’t borrow the external money, we would need to look at reducing our projects and services in the future. I believe it is more prudent to reduce our projects and services now.

We are proposing $2.3 billion of capital expenditure, which includes $1.5b of new assets. $442 million is to look after what we already have (renewals) and $296m to fund growth. It’s important we look after our assets, so we have stepped up our investment in renewals by $100m.

Of the $1.5b of new projects, $647m is for the wasterwater project.

We’ve had significant investment in infrastructure in recent years and now our debt is close to $250m.

To progress everything in our long-term plan our debt would increase to $660m as well as the additional $647m that will need to be repaid for the wastewater project. The total of about $1.3b would mean significant increases in interest and debt...