Submissions, hearings and deliberations on the draft Revenue and Finance Policy have been completed. The final Revenue and Finance Policy was adopted on 26 June and is effective from 1 July 2024.

You can read the final policy here.

The Revenue and Financing Policy describes how we will use revenue and financing sources to fund our activities. We can fund our activities from a range of tools, including borrowing, grants and subsidies, property rates, direct charges for services, financial reserves, investment income and financial contributions. In developing a Revenue and Financing Policy, we choose the most appropriate funding sources for activities.

Why has this policy been reviewed?

We review our Revenue and Financing Policy every three years as part of developing the Long Term Plan (LTP), or sooner if change is required. The previous review of the policy was done in 2022 alongside our Draft Annual Plan 2022/23.

There are three key proposals for changes to funding sources for some of our work. They are:

• Funding public transport in urban centres
  • Currently, 100% of the rates funded portion of operating costs for urban public transport comes from targeted rates. We propose that rates funding comes from both General Rates (10%) and Targeted Rates (90%).
• Funding Rotorua Catchments operating costs
  • Currently costs are funded in part by grants and subsidies, with the rates portion being funded 50% by targeted rates over the Rotorua district and 50% through General Rates. We propose that over three years (from 2025/26 through to 2027/28) we transition from using both Targeted and General Rates to using General Rates only.
• Funding the regulation of Rotorua air quality
  • Currently the Rotorua urban area funds 50% of the operating costs of regulating of Rotorua air quality, with the balance funded from General rates. We propose that rates funding is 100% from General rates, which is the way air quality is funded in other locations.

The financial impacts of these proposals are detailed the Statement of Proposal which can be downloaded under Documents on the right.

We want to know what you think. Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council welcomes your views and feedback.

Feedback received before 9 April 2024 will be summarised for Regional Council. Those wishing to speak to their submission will have an opportunity to speak to Council at hearings before any recommendations are made. The revised policy will be presented to Regional Council for adoption in late June 2024.