The ratepayer contribution to the precinct named Te Manawataki O Te Papa is capped at $151.5m.
The public has expressed a preference to use an Infrastructure Funding and Financing (IFF) levy to fund this. The levy would be paid via the rates bill over 30 years.
According to the Tauranga City Council website, the levy for a median-value residential property was estimated to be $107 to $128 for ratepayers and $368 to $440 for commercial ratepayers. It was estimated to increase about 2 per cent a year, up to the cap.
Te Manawataki o Te Papa, meaning the heartbeat of Te Papa, will include a library and community hub, civic whare (public meeting house), exhibition gallery and museum. It will be located on the site of the former council chambers and library, between Wharf St and Hamilton St in the city centre.
Upgrades to Baycourt and Tauranga Art Gallery, along with the landscaping of public spaces and improving Masonic Park, will also be part of the project.
Artists' impressions of Tauranga City Council civic precinct project Te Manawataki o Te Papa.
The councilcalled for submissions in September on whether to use the levy or fund it through a rate-funded loan.
Of the 301 submissions received, 189 supported using the levy, 84 did not want to use the levy and 28 didn’t provide a response to the option choice.
The commission decided to proceed with the levy option at a council meeting on Monday but will not make the final decision until March 2024 when the IFF levy proposal has been developed.
Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said this was a sensible approach.
”It’s good that we’re not committing to a deal here. We want to see the whites of the eyes … on what that deal looks like before we make the final decision.
”We still want to make sure that it’s a good deal for the ratepayers.”
The intergenerational nature of the project came through in submissions, Tolley said.
”This is a big project and two, possibly three generations will enjoy the benefit of it and should be contributing to the payment.
”I was really heartened by the number of submissions that understood that.”
Tauranga City Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley. Photo / Alex Cairns
Around 36 per cent of submitters did not support the project. The reasons included the affordability for ratepayers and the council, and a preference for the council to fund other priorities in the city.
Tolley said these were “some of the same old naysayers who don’t want to spend any money.
”[They’re] quite happy to let centre city die and look like something out of a Western movie, with the tumbleweed tumbling down through the main street.
”I do recognise some of the points that submitters made about debt, and the visibility of debt.”
They needed to be transparent that the levy was debt, Tolley said.
One of the problems for local government was a large percentage of debt was tied up in paying for or underwriting growth, she said.
That restricted council’s ability to fund other things in the community, Tolley said.
”Local government is severely constrained by that.”
