The services we provide
What we're proposing to keep the same
Removing or deferring large projects does help reduce the impact on rates, but not by as much as you might expect. This is because these are usually capital projects, funded by loans that are paid back over a number of years - so the financial impact on rates each year is usually quite small. A bit like when you buy a car, you can choose to get a loan and pay it off over a number of years to reduce the cost up front.
The other type of cost is operating costs - the upfront costs you pay to operate that vehicle (like petrol, a warrant of fitness, and servicing costs). Our upfront costs are things like staff, insurance, electricity, software licences, chemicals etc. These costs typically increase over time due to inflation and growth e.g. needing to employ more staff to maintain our growing parks, cemeteries, toilets, and other facilities, etc. Adding more operating costs to our budget can often have a bigger impact on rates than capital projects, because the costs are usually ongoing for years to come rather than one-off costs to complete the project.
There are some operational costs we can’t change. We are required to process consents within certain time frames, we have to manage health and safety for staff and the public, we need the internet and software to deliver our services etc. But there are areas where we can choose the standard of the service we provide - like how often we
Continue to provide all the current services, to mostly the same standard.
We’re proposing to continue to provide all our current services to the current standards - unless otherwise covered in this document.
We’ve repeatedly trimmed and cut our operational budgets over recent years - to the point where we can’t cut more without actually cutting some of our services. We’d need to make some significant cuts to actually make a dent in this rates increase, and we would prefer not to do this, as we believe the services we choose to deliver (like pools, parks and libraries) are the services that make a huge difference to wellbeing in our community.
Standard of service we would provide:
No changes or minimal changes to the services we provide.
Total cost to deliver all Council services:
$84.3 million for 2024/25.
Rates for 2024/25 for an average urban property*
$3,648.55 (15% increase on 2023/24).
Rates for 2024/25 for an average rural property^
$5,343.78 (9% increase on 2023/24).
* Average urban property example has a CV of $640,000, is connected to water, wastewater, stormwater networks and receives a kerbside collection service
^ Average rural property example has a CV of $3.165m, is not connected to water networks and has no kerbside collection service
Cut council services to get the rates increase lower.
We could make cuts to some of our services to get the rates increase lower - but we’d need to make some significant cuts across multiple services to make a dent in this rates increase. For example we could:
• Stop mowing some reserves, or reduce mowing/maintenance
• Close the Waihou Transfer Station
• Review operating hours and/or the future direction of our facilities - such as pools, libraries, Council offices, Firth Tower, and Te Aroha i-SITE
• Increase user fees so ratepayers are not contributing to some facilities - such as the aerodrome
• Reduce community grants and funding to regional initiatives (like the regional economic development agency, or the regional tourism agency, or Waikato Screen)
Standard of service this would provide:
Reduced services across all the areas listed above.
Total cost to deliver all Council services: $82.5 million for 2024/25.
Rates for 2024/25 for an average urban property*
$3,583.08 (13% increase on 2023/24).
Rates for 2024/25 for an average rural property^
$5,020.00 (2% increase on 2023/24).
* Average urban property example has a CV of $640,000, is connected to water, wastewater, stormwater networks and receives a kerbside collection service
^ Average rural property example has a CV of $3.165m, is not connected to water networks and has no kerbside collection service
What else we're proposing to keep the same
Te Aroha Library
The Te Aroha Library is a beautiful historic building – but it also requires earthquake strengthening, and doesn’t meet some of the practical needs of a modern library.
Read more...
