Council Finds Savings to Reduce Rate Increase

South Taranaki District councillors adopted the 2025/26 Annual Plan this week (Monday 26 May) implementing a range of cost cutting measures totalling almost $1 million to reduce the average rate increase from 8.6% to 5.4%.

Rates had been projected to increase by 8.66% according to year two of the council’s Long-Term Plan (LTP). However, to minimise the impact on ratepayers, councillors asked officers to find ways of getting it under 6%.

Cost saving measures included cutting some community funding, reducing roading and district plan reserves, re-allocating some budgets and removing budgets where government policy has changed.

However, a proposal to increase log fire fees by 20% was rejected by Councillors who decided to keep the fee the same as what it was previously.

South Taranaki District Mayor Phil Nixon says the savings were practical and realistic.

“As a Council we have always been conscious about keeping costs down. It’s our responsibility to be as prudent and careful as we possibly can be with every ratepayer dollar we spend,” says Nixon.

“I believe we now have a better balance between providing the funding needed to maintain our current services and infrastructure to a good standard while keeping rates more affordable for our community. We will continue to prioritise and focus on the areas our community have told us they want to see improvements such as better roads, our towns amenities looking good and an improved dog control service. However, affordability is a big issue for many in our community and now is not the time to be burdening our ratepayers with high rate increases,” he says.

ENDS