There are 46,000 rateable properties in the Whangārei district. Photo: LDR / Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
Whangārei District Council is looking at a record 17.2 percent rates increase as it finalises its proposed $2 billion budget for the next decade.
The proposed rates increase for Whangārei district's 46,000 rateable properties is the council's highest-ever general rates lift and first to reach double digits.
It is almost double the council's previous highest rates increase of nine percent in 2015/2016.
Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo said the proposed 17.2 per cent rates increase for the 2024/2025 financial year would enable the council to maintain what it offered ratepayers, and no more.
"This is the cost of running our (essential) infrastructure, it's not about all the extra bells and whistles," Cocurullo said.
Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo says there are no bells and whistles in the rate increase. Photo: Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
The size of the proposed increase did not mean WDC had been under-rating in previous years, nor did it mean he had failed as mayor, he said.
Cocurullo said major increases in construction and insurance costs contributed to the rise.
An example was the cost of building a bridge, which had climbed by 40 percent since 2021.
The huge rates increase is outlined in Whangārei District Council (WDC)'s draft proposed Long Term Plan 2024-34 public consultation document, discussed at a council meeting on Tuesday.
The document said council roads needed urgent attention.
WDC was also falling behind in looking after its district's resilience to storms and cyclones.
Photo: LDR / Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
'We're not alone in this'
The price of goods and services had risen quickly over the last few years and the council's income no longer covered everyday costs.
"We're not alone in this. Councils around New Zealand are having to come to terms with how to fund the wide range of significant and long-term issues councils are facing," the document said.
It said the council needed significant rates catchup to cover costs.
Cocurullo said councils across New Zealand had signalled rates rises in the high teens for the coming financial year.
He said the proposed lift would still see WDC within the bottom quarter of New Zealand's council rates for the coming 2024/2025 year.
The general rates are paid on each property's land value.
Pātaua Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman John Emett said he was shocked by the proposed rates increase.
"That's a big increase, considering inflation's running at about 6.5 percent. Why do we need it?" Emett said.
"People are hurting financially. That's a big number and will only add to people's financial pressure and the misery facing some people," Emett said.
Cocurullo said the last few years of inflation had brought a big increase in the cost of delivering council's core services.
"We have always had some of the most affordable rates in New Zealand and made our rates dollars stretch as far as possible.
"We have now come to a crunch point, and after months of looking for a way out, it has become clear we cannot cost save our way out of this.
"Improving roads and resilient infrastructure does not come cheap," Cocurullo said.
Every sector was facing cost pressures, he said.
"When I first came into council in 2007, a suggested rates increase of over 10 per cent was enough to make people gasp.
"Successive years of squeezing more and more work out of less and less money, trimming costs and maintaining a very lean level of staffing have brought us here."
The dramatic increase for next year's rates comes with other increases during the next decade.
Council water rates are proposed to go up by more than 20 per cent for the 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 financial years.
This is towards a $90 million wastewater treatment and disposal plus stormwater catchment management for major Ruakaka growth and the $40 million Poroti water treatment plant that would help future proof Whangārei's water supply.
Cocurullo said the Three Waters asset and debt return to the council books had not contributed noticeably to the 17.2 percent proposed increase.
The draft proposed LTP public consultation document said WDC's drinking water infrastructure was in good shape, but money was needed to meet the government's new drinking water standards.
It also said some of the council's essential services would have to be cut in the case of a lower rate increase.
"We do not believe reducing services or cutting back on infrastructure investment is the right thing to do for our district."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
