Tauranga residents will see a rates increase of 13.7 per cent this year, to help fund infrastructure and the Tauranga civic precinct.
The increase was adopted by the commissioners at a Tauranga City Council meeting on Monday that finalised the annual plan and long-term plan amendment.
Commission chair Anne Tolley said they were making “great progress” with the community making sure they paid their fair share of rates.
Tolley said when commissioners started the community was “quite resentful of growth and feeling they were bearing all of the costs of it”.
“We’re working towards ensuring most people are paying their fair share of rates,” she said.“We are gradually getting there. We're not there completely, but this is making progress.”
Part of this “fair share” has involved raising the rates the commercial sector pay through increasing the differential, meaning the commercial sector would pay a larger portion of rates than residential property owners.
Development contributions have also increased in some areas of the city, and the commercial sector will pay a higher targeted transport rate.
Commercial ratepayers will pay $3.33 for every dollar a residential ratepayer does.
The rates increases are broken down into a weekly dollar amount for each residential bracket.
Homeowners with a capital value of $495,000 (low residential) will pay $3.49 extra per week, a capital value of $790,000 will increase by $4.18, a $980,000 capital value will attract a $4.82 increase.
The upper quartile owners with a value of $1.2 million will pay $4.62 more each week and high residential with a value in excess of $3.5 million will pay $8.11 extra a week.
A commercial property in the lower quartile with a value of $865,000 will pay $18.55 extra per week in rates.
The median commercial band will pay $30.21 more, and upper quartile properties of $3.3 million will pay $61.50.High commercial properties with a capital value of more than $41 million will see an increase of $715.82 each week.
Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston said they were mindful of rising costs and inflation, and it would be easy to “pull back”.
Rolleston said what was required does need “significant investment”.“I don't think we can push pause or hold back in terms of the investment.”
A Local Democracy Reporting investigation into the rates of the country’s 67 councils shows Tauranga’s residential rates increase is high compared to other cities in New Zealand.
Auckland’s proposed rates increase was 3.5 per cent, Hamilton 4.9 per cent and Wellington 8.9 per cent.
The highest proposed rates increase was Mackenzine District Council at 17.3 per cent.
The average rates increase was 6.73 per cent.
The lowest was the Chatham Islands Council with a 2.5 per cent increase. The data is current as of May 2022.
Credit: Stuff.co.nz
