Pencils Sharpened to Lower Proposed Rate Increase

Hard work behind the scenes has resulted in a lower than expected proposed rate increase for 2008/09 in New Plymouth District.

Tonight (Wednesday) New Plymouth District Council confirmed the draft Budget 08/09 for public consultation, which is year three of the Community Plan 2006-2016.

“We have some big-ticket items coming on-stream this year, such as sewer reticulation in Urenui and Oakura, developing the new public space alongside the Huatoki Stream in central New Plymouth and other key infrastructure work,” says Mayor Peter Tennent.

“Inflation has had a significant effect on the proposed budget for the coming financial year, but the team has done a lot of work to reduce by more than two-thirds the likely rate increase by finding cost savings and efficiencies within our budgets.”

The draft Budget 08/09 proposes a 4.9 per cent increase in general rates (averaged across all ratepayers), with no increase to the uniform annual general charge. The proposed increase in targeted rates would see a rise of $22 to $290 for water supply, a rise of $67 to $415 for sewage disposal, and a rise of $5 to $52 for rubbish collection.

Much of the increase in targeted rates would help fund a programme of renewals and improvements across the district, says the Mayor.

In particular, the council wants feedback to two savings proposals which have been built into the budget:


Reducing footpath expenditure (on pre-seals only), saving $130,000.
Varying Puke Ariki’s opening hours, saving up to $115,000. (Monday to Friday: Opening one hour later at 10am. Wednesday: Closing three hours earlier at 6pm. Public holidays: South Wing (library) closed, North Wing (museum and i-SITE) open 10am-5pm.)
Without these savings, the increase in general rates would be about 5.7 per cent.

The public is also invited to send in ideas for increases to other fees and charges that would further reduce rates.

“We have conducted a survey of Puke Ariki users before we considered reducing the opening hours,” says Acting Chief Executive Frank Versteeg.

“We’d like to receive some feedback from the public on whether or not we should go ahead with this as a cost-saving measure.”

Because of the council’s strong financial situation, two-thirds of the money to pay for the proposed expenditure in Budget 08/09 will not come from rates and service charges, but from the $21.5 million payment from the Perpetual Investment Fund and other income such as fees and charges, and borrowing.

Alongside Budget 08/09, the council is also consulting on the proposed fees and charges for 2008/09, the proposed New Plymouth District Council Bylaw 2008 and the proposed amendment to the policy on development contributions.

Submissions on these four documents open on 2 April and will run until 2 May. When the public consultation begins, copies of these documents will be available at the Civic Centre, Puke Ariki and district libraries, and on www.newplymouthnz.com