The average 2016/17 rates increase across the Whakatāne District has been trimmed from 3.2 to 2.8 percent following the completion of deliberations on submissions to the Council’s Annual Plan for the next financial year, which starts on 1 July.

Council elected members yesterday welcomed a report indicating that savings resulting from a move to bring mowing and vegetation control activities in-house, reduced refuse removal costs, and a review of the capital works programme would flow through into lower than expected rates charges for most property owners.

However, the uneven impact of rates charged on property capital values sparked considerable discussion and a divided 5:5 vote on a motion to increase the uniform annual general charge (UAGC), which is applied equally to all rateable units in the District. The proposal would have increased the 2016/17 UAGC from $647.21 to $674.99, which would effectively have seen rates costs for lower-value properties increase relative to those for higher-value properties. The tied vote meant that the motion was lost.

Mayor Tony Bonne says the UAGC decision raised some difficult issues. “The Council is totally committed to keeping rates as affordable as possible, but there were also fairness issues to be considered, particularly relating to the situation dairy farmers are facing at present,” he says. “Given that Councillors were divided in their views, it would not have been appropriate to use the Mayor’s casting vote to change the existing policy.”

As a result of a range of positive and negative impacts on operating costs resulting from the submissions process, plus the varying impacts of community-specific activities such as stormwater upgrades, indicative changes in rates costs (GST-excluded) will range from a 4.39 percent decrease for lower value ($55,000 capital value) rural properties to a 5.65 percent increase for higher value ($935,000 CV) Ōhope properties.

Other indicative changes across District communities are:

• Whakatāne urban low ($128,000 CV) +0.77 percent
• Whakatāne urban average ($298,000 CV) +1.69 percent
• Whakatane urban high ($900,000 CV) +3.36 percent
• Edgecumbe average ($205,000 CV) +2.63 percent
• Matatā average ($226,000 CV) -1.47 percent
• Murupara urban ($55,000 CV) -1.58 percent
• Te Teko ($101,000 CV) -4.04 percent
• Ōhope average ($490,000 CV) +4.2 percent
• Tāneatua ($112,000 CV) +1.3 percent
• Rural high value properties ($2.37 million CV) +4.47 percent