| Ten Year Plan 2009 - 2019 |
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The Ten Year Plan |  |
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After more than a month of public consultation the Council recently adopted its 2009-19 Ten Year Plan, which outlines the projects, activities and services the Council will deliver to the community over the next 10 years. The Ten Year Plan includes the budgets, rates and charges for the 2009/2010 year. This edition of Southlink summarises the key decisions in the Plan and the effect these will have on rates. |
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Message from the Mayor | |
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Our Ten Year Plan is about striking the right balance between keeping rates as low as practical while also continuing to invest in our core infrastructure and plan for future growth. While we are currently experiencing uncertain economic times, the future outlook for South Taranaki is bright. Our challenge is how to position South Taranaki in the best way to take advantage of future growth and do things which make South Taranaki a vibrant, dynamic place where businesses want to invest and people want to live. As part of the public consultation process Council staff spoke to over 700 residents and attended 33 meetings about the Ten year Plan. We were very pleased with the level of interest and participation from residents in the Plan and received a total of 330 submissions. A concern a number of submitters raised was about the long term sustainability of rates. To address this, over the next 2 years, the Council has asked management to conduct an internal review of all the services and activities Council offers and report back on any significant findings. This Plan provides our Council with a strong focus and reflects the exciting opportunities and challenges which face us over the next ten years. |
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Outcomes of key proposals in the Ten Year Plan | |
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As part of the development of this Ten Year Plan the Council looked at the way it rates people and its Revenue and Financing Policy (this policy outlines how each activity will be funded). In its original Proposed Ten Year Plan 2009 - 2019 (which was released on 28 April for public feedback) the Council proposed a number of changes to the rating system. After considering the 330 submissions received from residents, the Council has made decisions about the final Ten Year Plan. The final Plan reflects a number of changes made as a result of the public submissions. Some of the proposals made in the original draft Plan have been kept, some have been changed and some have reverted to the status quo. The Council has also indicated that it would like to further review the basis of rating and the Revenue and Financing Policy over the next 2 years. The outcome of the key policy proposals that were included in the Summary consultation document are described below: Use of UAGC to fund activities The UAGC (Uniform Annual General Charge) is a set rate which all ratepayers across the district pay, regardless of the value of their property (in comparison to the general rate which is calculated based on the capital value of your property, so is different for every property). In the past the UAGC has funded a specific list of activities (for example; halls, libraries etc). When the cost for these activities increased, the UAGC increased. The Council had proposed that the UAGC become a fixed fee which provides a contribution to all the general rate activities and only increases by the consumer price index each year (inflation). The submissions received on this proposal were split between supporting the proposal, changing the proposal so that the UAGC increased by the general rate increase or to the maximum legally allowed (30% of total rates) or retaining the status quo. Outcome for 2009/10: The Council has chosen to revert to the status quo with the UAGC funding a specific list of activities. These activities are - halls, rural swimming pools, the TSB Hub and Powerco Aquatic Centre, libraries, 30% of the I-SITE and tourism, public toilets, cemeteries, parks and reserves and events. The UAGC for 2009/10 will be $400, an increase of $21 on last year; this reflects the increased costs of these activities. Wastewater Charge (Pan Tax) The Council proposed that businesses pay for domestic wastewater services based on the number of toilets within a property, using a sliding scale of charges. This does not include trade waste, which is currently catered for through specific agreements between the Council and several big industries. The issue of trade waste will be better addressed through a trade waste bylaw to be implemented in 2009/10. The majority of submissions received on the pan tax were in favour of the new charging regime with exemptions for certain properties. Churches, motorcamps and schools were well supported for an exemption. Outcome for 2009/10: Investigations will proceed in 2009/10 for Officers to count the number of toilets within each property of the business sectors across the district. The Council agreed to exempt properties used for schools (including preschools), commercial motorcamps and churches because of the varied use patterns (holidays for schools, seasonal peak for motorcamps and short usage for churches). Until the counting has been completed and the tradewaste bylaw adopted the effect on the wastewater charge is unknown, so implementation will start in 2010/11 with further advice during the Annual Plan consultation period. Residential and exempted properties will continue to pay a single charge, as will businesses with only 2 toilets. The sliding scale means that properties with over 13 toilets pay the maximum amount of 4 wastewater charges. General Rate differentials Since 1994 when the Council changed to capital value as its basis for general rates there have been two general rate differentials - the Patea hydro dam paid 50% of general rates and properties valued over $40 million paid 75% of general rates. The Council proposed that these two differentials be abolished. The majority of submissions received on the differential proposal supported ceasing them; the two businesses affected were in opposition. Outcome for 2009/10: The Council has decided to abolish these two differentials into the future with the two businesses affected having to pay 100% of general rates. Changes to User Fees A big part of the Revenue and Financing Policy for the Council is choosing the proportion of expenses to be funded from user fees (as opposed to general rates) for each activity/service. For example 30% of the funds needed to run the Aquatic Centre might come from user fees and the other 70% come from the general rates. During the consultation period the Council asked residents to consider some changes to the previous proportions. Solid Waste disposal (operation of transfer stations and the cost of disposing of the refuse from those transfer stations) - a smaller proportion was suggested because fees would have risen too sharply and residents might have found less suitable ways to dispose of refuse eg fly-tipping. The majority of submissions supported this proposal. Powerco Aquatic Centre - a smaller proportion was suggested because fees would have risen too sharply and fewer residents would have used the complex. The majority of submissions received supported this proposal. Cemeteries - a higher proportion from fees was suggested to cover some of the cemetery maintenance costs and lessen the burden on general rates. The majority of submissions received supported this proposal. Some of the other activities required an increase in fees to achieve the right proportion for the existing policy - this affected Animal Services and Halls particularly. Most of the submissions supported the Hall fees increasing but submissions on the dog registration fee increase were evenly split for and against. Outcome for 2009/10: The Council adopted all of the proposals put forward about the Revenue and Financing Policy for rates and fees for 2009/10 but has signalled a further review of this policy in the coming two years. Most Council user fees will be increasing from 1 August 2009. The Powerco Aquatic Centre fees will increase on 27 July when the upgrade work is completed and invoices for dog registration fees for 2009/10 will be mailed in late July. A summary of the new fee structure is below. The full list is too big to publish in full, but can be found in the full Ten Year Plan document.       
Water Meter Charge The Council had proposed that the annual meter charge for all urban metered connections increase from $50 to $200. The charge has not increased for over 5 years. This charge covers the cost of reading the meter, sending the invoice and a contribution towards the replacement of the meter (needed at least every 10 years). A similar charge was proposed to be introduced for all rural consumers. The majority of submissions were against the increased fee with many submitters citing the impact of the increase on properties using small amounts of water, rather than the principle behind the meter charge. Outcome for 2009/10: The annual water meter charge for urban water meter consumers will increase to $100 for 2009/10 as a transition measure. The rural annual meter charge will be established at $100. Both rural and urban meter charge fees will increase a further $50 for the next 2 years reaching the target of $200 in 2011/12. New Hawera Business Rate The Council had given notice in its Proposed Ten Year Plan that it intended to abolish the Hawera Business Differential for the Urban Upgrade loan from 1 July 2009 as the $2 million loan will have been repaid. During the consultation period the Hawera Business Association gained support from 138 businesses for the Council to rate Hawera businesses to raise money to fund a Town Coordinator and some improvement projects. Outcome for 2009/10: A new Hawera Business Targeted rate will commence in 2009/10 raising $140,000 each year (approximately half the amount raised from the old differential) using the capital value of the properties that had been paying the business differential. Funding requests granted by the Council from submissions
So what does this mean for your rates? The overall rate increase for 2009/10 for urban properties averages between 1-4%. Urban properties have a decrease of $32 in their kerbside collection rate, a small increase of $9 for their water targeted rate, no increase for their wastewater rate and the 9.5% increase in the general/roading/UAGC rates. The kerbside collection, water and wastewater rates have the effect of lowering the overall rating impact. The overall rate increase for rural properties (without taking account of the properties receiving Council water) averages 10% as the UAGC (set fee) has a smaller effect within the overall rates on the higher capital values. After taking into account the projects put on hold and operational savings made by the Council , the projected combined UAGC, general and roading rate was set to increase by 13.17% in 2009/10 and 6.58% in 2010/11. To lessen this impact to some degree the Council has chosen to smooth the projected rates increase over the next 4 years. The 2009/10 combined general/roading/UAGC rate will increase 9.5% and years 2, 3 and 4 will have an increase of 6.1%. This involves running a small general rate deficit of $532,000 in 2009/10 and $644,000 in 2010/11. The deficit will be funded by short term borrowing and will result in some additional interest expense. Some rating examples:     |
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• | Ten Year Plan Home | |
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• | Ten Year Plan 2009-2019 Volume 1 (PDF) | |
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• | Ten Year Plan 2009-2019 Volume 2 (PDF) | |
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• | Introduction | |
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• | Message from the Mayor | |
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• | Outcomes | |
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