Source: Porirua City Council
Porirua City Council’s Te Puna Kōrero Committee has today given the go ahead for consultation on the proposed Annual Plan 2025/26, which sets the budget and rates for the coming year – with a starting point for rates increases of 6.75 per cent.
Approval was also given to consult on the future of water services for Porirua. This consultation will be part of the wider Annual Plan consultation and is detailed in a separate release.
From 20 March we’ll be asking for people’s feedback on our proposed Annual Plan for 2025/26, and people will have a month to make a submission.
The services we provide – like rubbish, recycling, roads, parks, pools, libraries, and especially infrastructure – are costing more than ever, and rates in Porirua are at an all-time high, with a 17.5 per cent increase last year. We aren’t alone, with average rates increases of 18.4 per cent across the Wellington region last year.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker says that we can’t continue to have rates increases at those levels. In the Long-term Plan, our starting point for this year’s rates increases was 10 per cent, but cost pressures increased this to 15 per cent.
“We know that continued rates increases of that level aren’t sustainable for households or businesses, so once again we’ve taken a long, hard look at our internal operations to see where we can make savings to help get rates lower. By doing this, we’ve managed to cut this year’s planned rates increases from a new starting point of 15 per cent, down to an average of 6.75 per cent,” Mayor Baker says.
“If you want us to go further than that, we have come up with some other ways to reduce costs, which include higher increases to some fees and cutting some grants or funding.”
We want to hear what people think about the following options to further reduce rates increases this year:
– increase the entry fees to Cannons Creek Pool
– increase the hourly rates people pay to get building consents
– increase fees for paid parking by 50 cents an hour
– stop the Porirua Chamber of Commerce grant and cut the Event Investment Programme funding (this fund would not impact popular Council-run events like Waitangi Day or Anzac Day, or the funding already allocated for Te Kiwa Nui Festival).
You can have your say about this and the options to further reduce rates increases from 20 March to midnight 20 April. You can make a submission in writing, online, or by uploading a video submission: poriruacity.govt.nz/consultation
