The challenge
The Council’s vision for Hamilton is to be a smart
city in every way and in everything we do.
every actvity the Council undertakes is done with
our vision in mind.
but Hamilton faces signifcant fnancial challenges.
In past years the city has experienced a prolonged
period of rapid growth and the Council has
responded by investng in new infrastructure,
facilites and services. These were funded by
borrowing which means the Council’s debt rose to
a level that was unsustainable.
In recent years growth has slowed and antcipated
income from developers has not been received.
The efect of that is that Council has been running
at a loss for the past fve years.
The global fnancial recession contnues to have a
substantal impact on how much the city earns. We
expect that impact to contnue for at least the frst
three years of this 10-Year Plan.
Our response
The Council recognised the way it managed its
fnances needed to change and agreed it needed to
return to surplus and get debt under control before
embarking on new projects.
There were several optons to address the fnancial
issues including signifcant cuts to Council services
and substantal rates rises. but in deciding the best
way forward, we believed it was important to take
into consideraton the afordability of rates and
maintaining important services to a growing city.
This 10-Year Plan involved a substantal review of
every aspect of Council business.
The Council carefully scrutnised the services it
provides, the fees it charges and the assets it owns.
We compared what we do to other councils and
sought advice on where our Council could be more
cost-efectve.
In March 2012 we presented a proposed plan and
asked Hamiltonians for their ideas and feedback.
We received 726 writen submissions and 200
people came along to share their views with us in
person during fve days of hearings.
130,000CArs
Every day about
cross the city’s six bridges.
2 0 1 2 - 2 2 1 0 - y E a r p l a n
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