This month we're asking for your feedback on some changes we're proposing to make to our 2021-31 Long-term Plan and through our draft Annual Plan 2022/23.
These proposed changes help make our rates fairer for everyone and look at new ways of funding much-needed infrastructure to support our growth – and we want to know what you think.
Looking at new ways of paying for infrastructure to support our growth
All councils have limits on how much money they can borrow. For fast-growing centres like Tauranga, that can mean the ability to invest in new, essential infrastructure, such as transport networks, community facilities and water services, is limited.
In 2020, the Government introduced the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act (IFF) to remove this barrier and help fast-growth councils progress infrastructure projects to support new housing and urban development.
We want to apply for IFF funding to help us address two of the city's major issues – inadequate housing supply and traffic congestion.
If we're successful, the money provided would be used for infrastructure to enable 2000 new homes in Tauriko West to be built and to fund a series of transport projects to help people move around the city more easily and safely, and encourage the use of public transport, cycling and walking.
Repayments would be funded by levies on the properties that benefit from these investments.
Other benefits of this proposed funding arrangement include keeping the cost of the investment off the council's balance sheet, which would allow us to keep investing in other important activities without needing to increase rates to manage our debt limits. It would also mean we could remove some of the rates we proposed in the Long-term Plan for this purpose.
Most importantly, it would allow us to move the debt to another agency, so that we could repay some of it later when we have more ratepayers to help spread the cost. We think this is fair because future ratepayers will also benefit from these investments.
Evening out the playing field when it comes to paying rates
Just over half the daily trips on Tauranga's transport networks are related to commercial activities, but the sector currently pays less than a quarter of transport rates. We want to increase this to 50% over the next two years, starting in 2022/23.
We're also looking to increase the proportion of general rates paid by the commercial sector.
The current commercial differential is 1:1.60 which means a business pays $1.60 for every $1 paid by a residential ratepayer with a property of the same value. We're proposing to increase this to 1:2.13, which would still be less than the average commercial differential of other similar New Zealand metropolitan centres.
These proposed changes would result in a lower rates increase for residential ratepayers in 2022/23.
We think both of these proposed changes will make rates fairer for everyone, but we want to know what you think.
Find out more about what we're proposing and share your views: www.tauranga.govt.nz/itstime
Feedback closes 5pm Tuesday 26 April.