There has been a lot of publicity lately about the raising of the Uniform Annual General Charge part of the rates from $200 to $400. The Palmerston North Residents Association has been very outspoken against the increased charge and claims it is unfair and inequitable.

Councillors spent several months investigating the impact of the city-wide revaluation of property and the implications of this. We are charged with setting rates ” in a manner which is fair and equatable as between various ratepayers…” (see page 30 of the LTCCP for our rating objectives). Due to the variations in the 2003 property revaluation leaving the UAGC as it was would have resulted in some sections of the city, most notably Ashhurst, having an across-the-board decrease in rates from the previous year, while other areas of the city would have had the greater burden. This would not have been fair or equitable.

Total Rates of $47.9 million will be required to provide City services for the year.
This chart shows the key services provided and the net amount that would be funded (rounded) per annum by the average ratepayer. An average residential property has land value of $61,000. All properties pay a uniform annual general charge of $400 plus fixed charges for water supply ($179), wastewater disposal ($123), and waste management ($55). In addition each property is charged a general rate of 0.86224 cents for each dollar of land value.
Compare these sums for Council’s functions with estimates of other common outgoings:
Telecom Line Charge ($500)
Electricity ($1200+)
Newspaper ($200)
Sky TV ($400)

I had a telephone call which went like this…

Caller: “Do you support a rates review?” (I answered in the affirmative) Caller: “So, what are you going to do about it?”

It transpires that some candidates in this election are telling folk that should they be elected they will initiate a review of the current rating system. My caller had been informed by certain sitting councillors that this Council did not intend to review the rating system.

All I can say to this is - they cannot have been awake at council meetings over the last year, or read the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).

The City Council’s approved LTCCP document will be available from this week.

The Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) was approved on June 22, following Committee workshops and meetings to make changes to the plan in response to public submissions.

The document in its final version will be available at the Customer Service Centre, libraries, the Village Valley Centre at Ashhurst and on the Council’s website from Thursday, July 22.

The main features of the LTCCP and the approved rate rise of 5.4 percent are;

• The current levels of service have been retained in full into the 2004/2005 financial year

February, 2004

A regional state of emergency declared following a week of heavy rain, hurricane force winds and flooding. Palmerston North sustained little damage in comparison to our regional neighbours, which is cold comfort to those who were directly affected. My heart goes out to you all. I am involved in welfare liaison which has meant I have not been able to attend two brief council committee meetings in the week ended 20th February. All LTCCP meetings were attended and I managed to get along to the Community Development committee meeting.