Kaipara general rate kept to Long-Term Plan level

Kaipara ratepayers are facing a general rate rise of 8.9 per cent in the next financial year, based on a growth rate of one per cent.

The rise is in line with the figures outlined in Kaipara District Council’s three-year Long-Term Plan 2024-2027 (LTP).

Councillors were told at a meeting on March 5 that the rate increase had been kept under nine per cent by reducing depreciation for waters infrastructure, finding unbudgeted revenue streams of $100,000 for roading activities mainly through traffic management, and reducing spend on Three Waters consultancies.

Roading and water infrastructure will continue to be the two big ticket items for council spending next year.

Over the life of the LTP, council will spend close to $150 million on roading and footpaths (operational and capital expenditure), including $9.2 million of roading recovery. It will spend on around $32.5 million (capital and operational) on wastewater.

In addition to the proposed 8.9 per cent general rate rise this year, council will ask ratepayers for feedback on the introduction of a targeted rate to support the district’s three museums – Mangawhai, Kauri and Dargaville.

Ratepayers will be given four options:

• Contribute $14 per property a year to raise $185,000, shared equally by the three museums
• Contribute $20 per property a year to raise $267,000, shared equally by the three museums
• Contribute $14 per property a year to raise $185,000, but distribute $100,000 to Mangawhai Museum, $27,000 to Dargaville Museum, and $57,000 to the Kauri Museum
• Retain the status quo, with no museum targeted rate

Under options 1, 2 and 4, a $100,000 loan owed to council by Mangawhai Museum would be written off. Under option 3, the loan would not be written off and would, instead, be repaid over a term.

Council’s preferred option is to retain the status quo.

Consultation on the annual plan is expected to be held over four weeks in April/May, with the final adoption of the budget in June.

Targeted rates
Targeted rates are used to fund specific council activities, particularly where a specific group of ratepayers benefit from that service or where the revenue collected is targeted towards funding a specific type of expenditure.

The following is a list of existing targeted rates applied either across the whole Kaipara or in specific catchments:

• Wastewater, district-wide and assessed on a differential basis
• Water, district-wide and assessed on a differential basis
• Parks & libraries, district-wide $372.77 per rating unit
• Four Mangawhai Wastewater capital contribution targeted rates, varying between $569.95 per rateable property to $676 per property
• Stormwater, assessed on the land value of all rating units located within the stormwater networks and applied as a uniform rate in the dollar on land value
• Land drainage – Raupō
• Land drainage – other schemes
• Mangawhai Harbour Restoration, $80 per identified rating unit
• Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Dargaville, $7.70 per identified rating unit
• CCTV Ruawai, $10.35 per identified rating unit
• Ruawai Tokatoka Hall, $36.86 per identified rating unit
• Forestry roading, a rate in the dollar on land area (hectares) across all properties used for growing exotic trees that are in the Forestry Roading Targeted Rate area. The targeted rate is $11.05 per hectare of the rating unit.