Thursday, 12 November 2009
More than $3.7 million of capital works have been cut from the Thames-Coromandel District Council's current year's work programme as councillors work towards reducing the proposed annual average rate increase from 7.57 per cent to under five per cent for 2010-2011.
Some of the work has been removed completely from the programme while other projects have been pushed out a year to reduce the impacts of depreciation and interest costs on rates next year.
The changes signed off at the November Council meeting will only lower next year's rates by an average one per cent but it was expected that other proposals to be put to a Council workshop on November 27 would generate the extra savings being sought.
Councillors were told that the CAPEX cuts suggested at the November meeting had been tabled at this meeting because of timing issues. Some of the projects were due to go out for tender and staff also needed to know what cuts Council was endorsing so this could be factored into the 2010-2011 budgets which were currently being worked on.