With your help we can ensure we deliver the right work in the right areas, and that it is funded in a way to create the best possible outcomes for our communities.

Through our Long Term Plan we’re looking to make decisions that provide multiple benefits to the community, now and into the future. Now is the time to deliver on new projects, works and services. Along the way we’ve been mindful of the impact on our ratepayers, but we’ve needed to balance this against running an effective organisation that meets the expectations of our communities to deliver more.

The draft Long Term Baseline budget sets out $158 million of operating expenditure and $35.0 million capital expenditure for year one of the Long Term Plan, and $1,536 million of operating expenditure and $120 million of capital expenditure for the full ten year period. In year one, this would require a 5.8% real increase in general rates ($16 per year for a median Bay of Plenty household). There is also a 8.9% increase in real targeted rates in year one (the impact of this depends on the location and size of the property). After that, we are projecting real general rates increases of less than 3%. In the section on Our Budget Approach you will see more information about rates.

Increasing costs are being driven by a range of factors, including increasing engagement requirements, increased volumes of work due to central government changes, major capital projects and associated depreciation and capital loan repayments, and environmental considerations that did not previously exist.

We want your views on the key issues facing us, and on any other matters related to our services.

We look forward to hearing from you about the options in this consultation document and the impact they have on rates.

Real increase excludes growth and inflation. Total rates revenue increases as the number of rateable properties grows (approximately 1% per annum) – which doesn’t apply to existing ratepayers. Inflation also affects our costs and rates, and is estimated at 2.4% for year one on top of the real increase. The raw increase (including growth and inflation) is 9.3% general rates and 12.4% targeted rates in year one.