Regional rates rise promise

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council is blaming the government for an 8.5 per cent rates increase for Tauranga rate payers this year.

Regional Councillor Paula Thompson told city councillors the rise follows expenditure of $107 million this year - $14 million more than the long term plan predicted.


Water is a big issue for the region according to The Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Over half of the 14 million is going on improving the quality of fresh water throughout the region, Paula told city councillors at a recent meeting.

'The government has brought in new national water standards for all of NZ setting out minimum standards,” says Paula.

'We have got nine water catchments in our region and we are going to have to go and have conversations with each one of those management areas and the communities, to say do they just want the minimum standards, or do they want more than that?

'Do they actually want water that's potable and that they can drink? All of those conversations are going to be about affordability, cost and that's a massive amount of work we are going to have to do.”

An additional $3 million is being spent on regional infrastructure funding, there's a $2.5 million increase on passenger transport, and the regional council is supporting three wastewater schemes - Rotoma, Rotoiti and Matata - because they will be the last of those schemes that have government subsidy.

The regional overspend means Tauranga city ratepayers will face on average an 8.5 per cent rise in their regional rate this year, tapering off to six per cent after two years and down to one per cent over the course of the ten year plan.

'Give or take, roughly in dollar terms that means across Tauranga city the general rate is $11 per annum and the targeted rate for transport of $2,” says Paula.

'So your householders will be experiencing this level of increase from the regional council if this all goes through.”

Changes in the ten year planning process mean the regional council is now only obliged to consult on what it considers big issues in the community.

The BOPRC is also looking at an integrated approach to Tauranga Harbour, but looking at cleaning up the harbour water quality is part of a whole of catchment approach which is part of deed of settlement with the collective iwi of Tauranga Moana, which is not yet signed off.

Paula adds: 'across the region we have 35 iwi and 200 hapu, and that's the kind of consultation we are going to have to be doing with tangata whenua, as well as others in our communities in terms of those nine water catchment areas.

'The other issue is that the government has also said: ‘you have to make sure you allocate water far more efficiently as there is far too much wastage going on'.

'So water is our big game in town.”

Cleaning up the varying levels of pollution in the 16 Rotorua lakes is part of that. The regional council is looking after eight of those lakes, and four of them have significant government subsidy.

The regional rate is divided on an 80:20 split, with Rotorua ratepayers paying 80 per cent and the rest of the region's ratepayers paying 20.

'We think that is reasonable. We think as a region they are pretty iconic,” says Paula.

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3 comments

Scrap the regional council

Posted on 03-03-2015 17:26 | By Annalist

I'd have thought the big regional rates rises were due to excessive staffing, large numbers of bureaucratic processes, plenty of wordy reports and insufficient governance from the regional councillors. Despite getting millions of $ from the Port every year, they still have to put up their rates. Why does the regional council own the Port shares anyway? They should be owned by the people of Tauranga where the port is located.


TCC Water is just fine!

Posted on 03-03-2015 23:02 | By Murray.Guy

TCC can save you a lot of time and money ... our water is just fine, in-fact it's better than just fine! Are you sure this isn't just another case of staff choosing to interpret a policy to justify their existence and expansion?


Money wasters

Posted on 04-03-2015 08:18 | By drgoon

What a load of b******s... 8.5% tapering off to 1% at the end of the 10 year plan. Come on please stop treating us like idiots. We all know this won't happen. No matter how many times it has been said it has never happened. How about this for a new and innovative idea. Why don't the Councils look at how they can save money instead. Take this as an example:I live on Faulkner St Gate Pa, we have a bus stop at the end by Humber Cr. It gets painted by the contractor who does road marking every year. There hasn't been a bus service down there for years. What about re-surfacing of roads that don't need it??


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