We’d like your input into what we have planned for the coming year.
While the draft Annual Plan largely aligns with year two of the Long-Term Plan 2018-28 adopted last year, it does propose increased funding for public transport to match supporting funding from the New Zealand Transport Agency, and increased funding in water management, pest control and biodiversity. A reduction in air quality funding is also being considered to help allow for the increases.
The proposed changes represent a total rates revenue increase of 3% for public transport (largely made up of targeted rates in Greater Christchurch) and 5.9% for other services: a total rates revenue increase of 8.9% (approximately $8.9m). This compares to a 5.1% increase noted for year two of the Long-Term Plan.
An indication of the dollar amounts involved per property can be seen below.
The total proposed increase is made up of the following:
- 3.0% on proposed increased public transport funding which, with the supporting NZTA funding, will improve the frequency of service. This would be funded mostly from a targeted Christchurch urban rate.
- 2.4% for inflation, which takes account of increasing operating costs including fuel prices.
- 3.5% reflects a proposed increase in spending on water management ($3.2m) and biodiversity ($0.8m) programmes.
It is also proposed that total rates revenue for air quality work be lowered (by $0.6m), to off-set some of the increase, as this programme has been progressing well with air quality in the region improving year-on-year. The monitoring work will remain to ensure this continues to be the case as we track towards meeting the national standards.
We are proposing some changes to the Fees and Charges Policy and the Revenue and Financing Policy.
All the Levels of Service agreed in the Long-Term Plan ie the longer-term outcomes, can still be achieved with the proposed funding changes noted above for the coming year.
The 8.9% is the increase in the amount received from rates (a total of $8.9m) – and does not represent how much an individual property owner’s rates will increase.
This is because the increase is proposed to be funded with a mix of general rate and targeted rates, which will affect ratepayers differently depending on location in the region and the capital value of their property. Some indicative rates movements are shown below (please note some districts, such as Ashburton, have had capital valuations done which will also impact the increase).
Indicative proposed rates based on property capital valuations at various locations are shown here.
Council hearings
The date for speaking to Council is Tuesday 30th April (note this may change if more than one day is needed).
The
Council’s Fees and Charges Policy describes the fees and charges we have set under legislation (including the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act).
A number of charges are not at a level that recovers actual or reasonable costs. We are therefore proposing a number of changes to the fees and charges in the Policy ($ amounts) and also proposing the introduction of two new charges.
New charge for water data management: we are proposing to introduce the mechanism to charge water-take consent holders up to $200 (exc GST) as an annual fee per consent for recovery of costs of managing their water data.
This charge reflects the actual and reasonable costs associated with compliance monitoring of water use data and will cover the cost to develop guidelines for quality data, checking and chasing missing data, licence fees for data software, verification of meters, compliance checking against consent limits, reporting compliance results, and recording and maintaining all data.
We are not consulting at this stage on bringing in the charge (ie this is about whether we should amend the policy to enable us the charge for this), however, if the mechanism is introduced to the policy it does mean that this charge can be made in the future.
New charge for ‘non-compliant incidents response’: we are proposing to introduce a new charge (both the mechanism and also to commence using the charge) for non-compliant incidents response. This means that, should we be called out to an incident and we find that there is non-compliant activity taking place, we can recover the costs of that call out from the individual concerned rather than this being funding by all ratepayers.
Harbourmaster’s Office fees and charges: we are proposing increases to the amounts charged by the
Harbourmaster’s Office for such things as swing moorings and port charges. These amounts have not been reviewed for a number of years and the proposed changes represent actual and reasonable cost recovery.
There is also some clarification of wording and changes to costs of disbursements/staff time and vehicle charge-outs.
Council hearings
The date for speaking to Council is Tuesday 30th April (note this may change if more than one day is needed).
We are responsible for the prudent expenditure of around $170 million each year. We have a number of financial policies that are agreed through community consultation, which determine how we manage these finances.
These policies look at such things are what we fund, how we are funded, what level of financial risk we will take etc.
The Revenue and Financing Policy explains the rationale and process of selecting various funding sources to support the operating and capital expenditure we undertake. It includes the guiding principles under which funding source decisions are made – for example, when is something paid for via a targeted rate and when is it a general rate that everyone contributes to.
Amend the land value/land area split for Regional Targeted Pest Management rates:
Targeted pest rates are calculated on the basis of land value and land area of a property. In the current policy this is calculated as a 50:50 split, land value to land area. We are proposing that a change is made from this 50:50 split value:area, to an 80:20 split.
The 80:20 split will better apportion the rates for targeted pest management work.
New Pest-Free Banks Peninsula rate:
The Long-Term Plan 2018-28 signalled an investigation into the feasibility of expanding the Banks Peninsula Community Initiative Programme rate. This investigation has been undertaken and we are now proposing that the Banks Peninsula Community Initiative Programme rate be replaced with a new Pest-Free Banks Peninsula (PFBP) rate.
A combination of general and targeted rates for Pest-Free Banks Peninsula is proposed, to be made up of 50% general rate (ie all properties in Canterbury) and 50% targeted rate for local properties (based on 80% land value and 20% land area).
Proposed new rating area for Banks Peninsula
The targeted rate will be collected from all rateable property types in the proposed new rating area shown on
this map. This includes the Port Hills, Banks Peninsula and Kaitorete Spit.
The PFBP initiative will produce immediate benefit to Port Hills and Banks Peninsula landowners and occupiers and longer-term public benefit from thriving indigenous flora and fauna, as well as amenity benefits, which will have flow-on effects for the region.
Council hearings
The date for speaking to Council is Tuesday 30th April (note this may change if more than one day is needed).
