Local authorities' rates income rises

Local authorities' income from rates increased $79.3 million to reach $902.9 million in the September 2007 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.

This was a 9.6 percent increase from the June 2007 quarter andreflects the new level of rates struck for the 2007/08 year.

Total seasonally adjusted operating revenue for the September quarter was $1,517 million, a small increase of $6.3 million when compared with the June 2007 quarter.

The main contributors to the increasewere rates, government grants and subsidies (up $15.1 million or 7.1 percent), and regulatory income andpetrol tax (up $4.9 million or 6.1 percent).

These increases were offset by sales of goods and services(down $64.5 million or 21.2 percent) and total investment income (down $28.5 million or 31.6 percent).

Total seasonally adjusted expenditure for the September 2007 quarter was $1,503 million.

The rise of $47.1million from the June 2007 quarter was spread across all the expenditure categories.

The main contributors to the rise were depreciation (up $20.8 million or 6.9 percent), purchases of goods and services and donations (up $16.4 million or 2.1 percent) and employee costs (up $8.8 million or 2.7 percent).

With total operating revenue increasing by $6.3 million since the June 2007 quarter and total expenditure increasing by $47.1 million, the resulting quarterly surplus experienced in September fell to $14.0 million from the $54.8 million experienced in the June 2007 quarter.