Latest news with #ratesincrease
RNZ News
26-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Tauranga's rates hike approved amid protest
Some of the 60 people that gathered outside the Tauranga City Council building to protest the 9.9 percent rates increase on Thursday morning. Photo: LDR/Supplied Tauranga homeowners will pay an extra $180 to $1124 in rates for 2025 after the council approved its budget. Tauranga City Council adopted the 2025/26 Annual Plan at a meeting on Thursday with a 9.9 percent overall rates increase. About 60 people gathered before the meeting to protest the rates increase. It was the second rally organised by Jan Gyenge. In May, around 250 people marched down Devonport Rd calling for a 0 percent rates increase for 2025. Gyenge said Thursday's rally was to let the councillors know people were still not happy with the 9.9 percent rates increase, given it was nowhere near the 0 percent they called for. Tauranga resident Jan Gyenge spoke in the public forum against the 9.9 percent rates increase. Photo: LDR/Alisha Evans There would be another protest at midday Sunday outside the council building at 90 Devonport Rd, she said. The 9.9 percent increase was down from the 12.5 percent initially proposed. Gyenge and three others spoke in the public forum asking the council to reduce the rates. Gyenge's request to speak at Wednesday's meeting was initially declined because the council said her perspective had been heard before, but it had a last-minute change of heart. She asked the councillors to "stop the wastage". Gyenge talked about the council's spending and chastised it for a planned playground opening event in Bethlehem, with free food and face-painting. "It's a little amount, relatively, but these little amounts add up. This expenditure has to stop." Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale. Photo: LDR/David Hall Mayor Mahé Drysdale said the council took more than $30 million out of its operating budget to get to the 9.9 percent increase. This included cutting 98 staff , with more likely still to come as the council underwent a management review. Drysdale said there was a lot of work to do in Tauranga after "chronic underinvestment" in facilities and infrastructure. "We do understand the tough financial position a number of households find themselves in. This [annual plan] strikes a good balance of keeping the investment in our city for what we need for the future while making it as affordable as possible." Councillor Rick Curach said the council had a big job ahead to look for further savings, but he was confident they could reduce the forecasted rates in the 10-year plan. Rates increases were not in line with people's wage increases, and many in the community found it "increasingly difficult" to afford them, he said. "I look forward to finding more and more savings and not having such a huge cost on our community." Ōtūmoetai ward councillor Glen Crowther. Photo: LDR/David Hall Councillor Glen Crowther said he would support the Annual Plan, but the council had to deliver a lower rates increase next year. It also needed to look at its capital projects and reorganise them to "lock in some affordability", he saidm and figure out what the public could afford and come up with a plan that met those requirements. "We are here to serve the public. We are not here to deliver a plan." Deputy Mayor Jen Scoular said people wanted new playgrounds, sports fields and facilities, but the council needed to understand how to get more value from its "significant expenditure". Deputy mayor Jen Scoular. Photo: LDR/David Hall Drysdale said they were approving a budget by adopting the Annual Plan but that did not mean they needed to spend it all. "We want to find every saving that we can, and I think there's big opportunities to continue to save money." The council could deliver the same assets for significantly less money if it looked at its processes and did things differently, he said. "This is setting a budget\ - now the real hard work starts as we try to deliver under that budget." Residential rates rises by property capital value in the Annual Plan 2025/26: - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
ABC News
06-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Cairns mayor accused of 'chilling' debate amid proposed 800pc retirement village rate hike
Elderly residents of retirement villages in Cairns lobbying against a council proposal to hike their rates have hit out at the city's mayor, accusing her of "spying" on their movements using social media. Cairns Regional Council is proposing to charge its minimum general rate of about $1,072 to each individual unit in retirement villages from next financial year. Currently, it imposes a single charge across entire villages. Retirement village operators say the change would lead to a rates increase of about 800 per cent which they claim they would be required to pass on to elderly residents under state legislation. Cairns Mayor Amy Eden defended the council's position during a live radio interview with ABC Far North this week saying many retirement villages "put in requests [to the council] for footpaths" which ratepayers had to pay for. But it was a follow-up remark about elderly residents using council-owned recreational spaces that one critic said has had a "chilling effect". "Ratepayers pay for that. Everyone needs to contribute." Retirement village resident Judy Holtzheimer, who has lobbied against the council's proposal, said she was shocked by the mayor's on-air comments. "I was absolutely stunned that someone in her position would, I would say in my words, stoop to spying on elderly [people]," she said. Another retirement village resident, Kay Nyland, said she believed she would be "one of the people" the mayor has looked up "because I have been very prominent on social media about this issue". The ABC has contacted Ms Eden to seek her response to the concerns. In a statement, a council spokesman said today the council "does not engage in tracking of residents". "It is well known that the mayor is active on social media and uses it to engage with the community," he said. "It is also common for social media users to post images of themselves using council facilities, which as a social media user the mayor made an offhand reference to on radio." Cairns Regional Council argues changing its rating structure would bring retirement villages into line with other multi-dwelling complexes. She said others should seek financial hardship assistance from their village operator or the council. "There are always going to be a percentage of ratepayers that really struggle to pay their rates," Ms Eden said. "That is just the way that it goes." The retirement village sector has campaigned against the proposal, concerned other councils could follow suit. Oak Tree Retirement Villages CEO Christine Gilroy said villages already paid for the installation of roads, lightning and garden maintenance, and that it would be a "double hit to those residents to pay that again". Retirement Living Council executive director Daniel Gannon said the council should put off its plan for a year for "genuine and proper consultation". He described Ms Eden's remark as "shocking and bizarre". The council is due to vote on the proposal at the end of June.
RNZ News
29-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Is this the lowest rates rise in the country? Whanganui council holds firm on 2.2 percent
The plan for 2025/26 will go before the council in June to be adopted. Photo: Unsplash / Tom Rumble Whanganui District Council is sticking to an average rates increase of 2.2 percent following deliberations on its draft Annual Plan. Mayor Andrew Tripe believes it's the lowest rise in the country for the year ahead. The plan for 2025/26 will go before the council in June to be adopted. Tripe said the council has focused on doing the basics well, investing in core infrastructure, and involving the community in decision-making. The big topics thrashed out by the council in this week's deliberations were creating a standalone housing entity to grow housing stock, adopting a new strategy for Whanganui, changes to fees and charges, and increasing loan repayments. In each case, community feedback aligned with the council's preferred options. Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin On Thursday, the council confirmed it would: Operational budget changes have also been made since the council opened its draft Annual Plan 2025/26 for consultation. This includes water levies set by water services authority Taumata Arowai to recover the cost of regulatory functions. These levies will take effect from 1 July, 2025 and are expected to cost around $16 per household. Tripe said it was "incredibly frustrating" to receive news of the levies just as the council was about to adopt its budgets for the year ahead. "It is yet another example of central government shifting costs to local councils and communities - when it should be administered and funded at a national level." These levies, along with proposed Commerce Commission levies, would be incorporated into the Annual Plan budget for 2025/26 and would affect three waters rates for connected households. To ensure full transparency, the levies would be identified on rates notices. However, they would not increase overall rates due to additional income from other council revenue streams. The Annual Plan will be adopted on 26 June, with the plan taking effect from 1 July. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
ABC News
23-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Hepburn Shire Council sparks community outrage with one-year 10 per cent rates rise
Residents of Hepburn Shire, home to the tourist town of Daylesford in Victoria, are furious the cash-strapped council is pushing through a one-year 10 per cent rates increase. Earlier this month the Essential Services Commission approved the extra 7 per cent on top of the 3 per cent cap set by the state government. "We've had to find some more money and that's what we're attempting — to do it as a once off, said Hepburn Shire Council Mayor Don Henderson. Faced an annual $4 million cash shortfall, Hepburn Shire Council said the rates increase would generate an additional $1.36 million in revenue to be invested directly into necessary services and infrastructure. The council had been plagued by financial woes in the past decade. It lost $5.65 million in a failed Rex project which began in 2016 and was meant to transform a Daylesford art deco building into a multi-use centre for residents and the council. Cr Henderson said the failed project was only partly to blame for the rates increase. "We have a lot of heritage buildings and we have to maintain those," he said. He said the clean up following "fairly devastating" storms in Trentham and Creswick in 2021 and 2022 also cost the council $3.5 million. The council's draft budget for 2025-'26, including the double digits rates increase, is open for public feedback until June 5. According to the council the increase would see ratepayers pay on average an extra $2.20 per property per week. Blampied resident Cameron McPherson was among the ratepayers furious about the increase. "When you put this in combination with this new fire services levy it is going to affect my wife and I to the tune of $2,000 to $3,000 extra a year," he said. Mr McPherson said he wanted to see some "accountability". "If you're going to put up rates by 10 ten per cent in this cost of living crisis then you need to justify it and they aren't justifying it," he said. Deborah Clarke and her wife Lousie McLachlan live in the Hepburn Shire and have a business in Daylesford. They expect to pay an extra $300 to $400 a year on top of "a cost of living crisis". Ms Clarke and Ms McLachlan said a lack of community consultation was driving community anger. "We've been screaming for an indoor pool for 25 years." Cr Henderson said the rate rise had to be justified to the Essential Services Commission. "We had to show the commission we've tried other methods of raising money — be that by asset sales, or loans and cutting our costs in some areas," Cr Henderson said. "It's regrettable but necessary. We're trying to [cause] as little impact as we can but we still do have to find the money." Despite the rent increase Cr Henderson said Hepburn had the 60th lowest rates out of 79 councils in the state, and the rates increase would only be for this year. The ABC contacted the Muncipal Association of Victoria but it declined to comment, saying it was up to councils to set rates as they see fit.
ABC News
16-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
North Sydney Council's steep rates increase plan ruled out by IPART
North Sydney Council has lost a bid to hike rates by almost 90 per cent, with the regulator ruling it failed to make a compelling case for the massive rise. The council applied to increase rates by 87 per cent over two years, pushing minimum residential rates from $715 to $1,548. Under the plan submitted to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) rates for businesses would have gone up by even more. The council claimed it needed the extra revenue to immediately start repairing its financial position, build up unrestricted reserves to guarantee financial strength and fund new infrastructure. The issue has caused an uproar in the community since it was announced, with a council meeting in February descending into chaos when councillors voted to approve the plan. During that meeting North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker shouted "this is an outrage" as locals heckled and called for the resignations of councillors supporting the proposal. In knocking back the council's plan, IPART said the council failed to clearly identify the need for the dramatic increase in rates, and also that it was not clear about how it would spend the money It noted criticisms from locals that the rates increase would be used to pay for a massive blowout in the cost of redeveloping the North Sydney Olympic Pool. That project has seen the iconic swimming spot remain a construction zone since 2021. IPART has ruled instead of the 87 per cent requested, the council can only increase rates by 4 per cent next financial year, but it can lodge a new application in future years. Cr Baker told 702 Radio Sydney Breakfast in the wake of the ruling that the council will have to cut $25 million from its budget for the coming financial year to avoid a "real cash liquidity crisis". "If that's the case, the IPART process is just not fit for doing really long-term structural repair." Cr Baker said the council did not want to to sell assets to meet its financial obligations, so cutting the budget is the only short-term solution. The Northern Beaches Council, which sought to increase rates by 40 per cent over three years, has had only the first two years of its plan approved, meaning rates will rise by 25 per cent by 2027. Mayor Sue Hines said IPART's review of the council's cost savings and budgets was positive. "I don't think people realise that councils these days provide so much more than roads, rates and rubbish … everything you virtually look at or touch is normally an asset of councils," Cr Hines said.
