The Whakatāne District Council’s Annual Report for the 2014/15 year confirms the achievement of a $12,000 rating surplus, continuing the positive trend of the past three years.

The report was adopted at last week’s extraordinary Council meeting, following confirmation of an unqualified audit report from Audit NZ.

Mayor Tony Bonne says the surplus – equivalent to just 0.03 percent of the Council’s rates revenue – is an indicator of accurate budgeting and closely managed expenditure. “A small rating surplus is the ideal outcome, because it means ratepayers have paid no more than is required to deliver the various Council services. It also shows that we have generated almost exactly as much funding as we expected from other sources like lease income, grants and subsidies and fees and charges,” he says.

Income from sources other than rates contributed about 35 percent of Council revenue, meaning that for every $10 of rates collected, the Council was able to deliver more than $15 worth of services.

Operating expenditure for the year totalled $63 million, with the ‘big ticket’ items being:

• Roads and footpaths (24 percent of expenditure)
• Recreation and community facilities (15 percent)
• Water supply schemes (10 percent)
• Solid waste services (9 percent)
• Sewage treatment and disposal (8 percent)

Delays to several planned capital works, such as the Matatā wastewater scheme and installation of a new water supply main from the Paul Road bore, meant subsidies and grants were less than expected, contributing to a net operating deficit of $3.2 million. That ‘paper loss’ has no impact on rates.

Capital expenditure – the cost of buying or building new assets, renewing an existing asset or improving an asset to deliver a better service – nevertheless totalled $16.5 million, with more than 70 percent of the planned projects either completed or on track.

“We also have a lengthy list of non-financial, service targets that we monitor internally, or through the feedback from our annual community satisfaction survey, and it’s pleasing to note that more than 80 percent of the targets which could be measured were achieved,” Mayor Bonne adds.

A summary of the key annual report outcomes will be published as a special feature in the Bay Weekend newspaper on Saturday, 24 October. The full annual report will also available on the Council website next week.