Tasman District Council Lowers Proposed Rates Increase

The Tasman District Council has taken another step in determining its General and Targeted rates for the 2011-2012 year.  The coming year’s total figure has been determined with a 6.05% increase to the general rate. Within the increase is a 1.98% provision for the replenishment of the District’s disaster fund after the events of the last 8 months and an inflation adjustment of 3%.

These decisions will now go forward to the Council meeting of 30 June for formal adoption of the rates.

A sample group of properties has been provided to display the effect across a representative group of properties throughout the District.

The Council understands the difficult economic climate as we come out of a recession and has worked extremely hard to maintain the expected provision of service within an affordable budget.   When the Draft Annual Plan went out for submission we were consulting on a projected overall rates increase of 7% for most properties,” said Mayor Richard Kempthorne.  “During the submission process we were asked to include further items totalling a further $24million; this was obviously not sustainable or affordable.

“We have looked at the work programme and the requests and made some adjustments to reach what we believe is a realistic figure to maintain the expected level of service and amenity”.

Within the final plan the Council have included a number of changes from the Draft.  Included in those changes are;

• The Gibbs Valley Road resealing and widening, dropped from the work programme will receive some safety improvements over the coming year.
• While not supporting the Tasman Regional Heritage Trust request for additional funding beyond the approximately $900,000 they already receive from the Tasman District, the Council has increased its funding for local museums by $10,000.
• Port Tarakohe will receive a $105,000 increase in its funding for the 2011-2012 year with a review regarding the current financial support through next year’s long term plan process.
• The grass runway at the Motueka Aerodrome will have the budgeted work of $30,000 deferred pending a review to determine the priorities for future development, maintenance and spending.
• The Motueka Community Board Targeted Rate is to increase to $12.57 per rateable property to take account of the requested $4.34 to be applied to projects identified by the Community Board and residents within the ward.

Amongst the changes discussed today were the proposed increases to the Water charges currently charged throughout the District to those on Council’s urban water supply.  All those who are charged for water, except for the Motueka township scheme and the three industrial water users, will see their water charges increase to $1.50 per cubic metre with a fixed daily charge of 51.89 cents.

“It was hoped that the Council would have reached an agreement with the three Industrial Water Users prior to this decision, however, delays in arbitration have meant the Council has had to set the rate without any benefits being realised through reduced costs being passed onto domestic or other business users.

“It is certainly the aim of the Council to reach an agreement with the three Industrial Water Users as soon as possible to ensure water charges are fair to all parties”, concluded Mayor Kempthorne.

Note: All figures are GST Exclusive, except for the representative properties that are GST Inclusive to provide real comparison.