Proposed Rebuild and Recover budget for 2023/24 makes some tough calls

Published on 10 March 2023

Above: Repair work on Colville Road, Port Jackson. Photo courtesy of Ventia

Proposed Rebuild and Recover budget for 2023/24 makes some tough calls

With four severe weather events in the first six weeks of 2023, and costs for Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle likely to be around $40 million just to repair and rebuild our local roading alone, we’re having to make some tough calls in our upcoming Annual Plan about delaying, deferring or amending our planned infrastructure projects and cutting operational costs.

That’s why we’d like your feedback on our proposed budget for this coming financial year (1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024).

“A major focus is on repairing the extensive damage to our roading network to help keep our communities connected and accessible,” says our Mayor Len Salt.

“The government knows that the closure of SH25A (for up to a year at least) and disruptions to our local roading networks, are a significant blow. It’s aware of the impact of increasing driving times and fuel costs for many of us, along with the additional pressure on our roads. Financial support and assistance are starting to be committed to our district – but it won’t pay for everything we need to get fixed,” says Mayor Len.

“We’re also coming out of a two-year COVID-19 period of lockdowns, all of which has exacerbated supply chain disruptions, labour market shortages and inflation increases, which has impacted Council costs.

“So now we have the challenge of trying to balance rates, while we rebuild and make our district resilient to the more frequent extreme weather and effects of climate change,” says Mayor Len.

“Together we’re going to have to make some tough decisions about where and what we spend on, in the next 12 months. Please get involved and have your say.” 

Share your thoughts

Feedback on the proposals for our Annual Plan can be made from Tuesday 14 March to Monday 10 April.

From Tuesday 14 March, go to tcdc.govt.nz/annualplan2023 to read the consultation document. It’s your guide to what we’re proposing to rebuild and recover. Or, pick up a copy from one of our Council offices or district libraries and follow the steps to submit your feedback.

Here are some key changes we’re consulting on:

Your rates: In our 2021-2031 LTP we had forecast a 7.7 per cent average rates increase for the district this coming year. This was consulted on and adopted by Council in 2021. Since then, we’ve seen interest rate increases, project and contract cost escalations and now we face the ongoing costs to rebuild and recover. Right now, we’re signalling a proposed district average rates increase of 11.4 per cent. 

However, average rate increases vary for a number of reasons, including the area and property type you have. For example, the median rates increase proposed for residential properties in Whangamatā is 11.8 per cent and for Mercury Bay 14 per cent, whereas the average rates increase across all ratepayers in those wards is 10 per cent and 12.4 per cent respectively. Average rates by Community Board area including all ratepayers are shown in the table below. Our ‘Proposed rating examples for community board areas’ for specific rating values will be added to tcdc.govt.nz/annualplan2023 before our consultation begins on Tuesday 14 March.

This figure may change further before we adopt our final Annual Plan in June 2023, to accommodate storm rebuilding and recovery projects which haven’t yet been able to be costed.

Capital (CAPEX) and Operational (OPEX) programmes: To get the rates increase as low as we can, we’ve made some tough calls on our CAPEX and OPEX programmes. We’re proposing to reduce and defer some capital works and projects, and have re-evaluated our operational budgets to reduce spending, including a proposal to not fund $6.7 million in depreciation and to use retained earnings (from previously underspent operational budgets) to offset rates. This will make room in our budget for damage relating to storm events that will need to be added at a later date.

Pollen Street Project: We’d like to know if you want us to defer the Pollen Street project in Thames to 2024/25 and beyond. Our local businesses on Pollen Street are already facing hardship following two years of COVID-19 restrictions and the recent severe weather events. They’re working hard to re-establish themselves and this project would cause further disruption. If you support the deferral, then the capital budgets for Pollen Street water, wastewater, stormwater and roading in 2023/24 will be zero.

Kerbside collection pricing: From 1 September 2023, we have a new solid waste contractor, Waste Management Ltd, and we’ll be rolling out new rubbish and food waste bins. We are proposing three different pricing options that are a combination of a solid waste targeted rate per service area, and a pre-paid ‘pay as you throw’ (PAYT) system. All options propose an increase in the solid waste targeted rate for each service area due to rising contract costs and increasing Government levies.

We’d like your feedback on which pricing option you prefer:

• Option 1: 86 per cent increase to solid waste targeted rate and PAYT pre-paid system costing $7 including GST per 140L bin empty
• Option 2: 76 per cent increase to solid waste targeted rate and PAYT pre-paid system costing $8 including GST per 140L bin empty
• Option 3: 67 per cent increase to solid waste targeted rate and PAYT pre-paid system costing $9 including GST per 140L bin empty

Changes to the schedule of fees and charges: Our proposals for fees and charges include changes to building and resource consents, development contributions, kerbside collection charges and transfer station fees, parks concessions, Thames War Memorial Civic Centre equipment hire, water usage fees, and ‘learn to swim’ fees at Thames Centennial Pool, as well as the removal of library fines.

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