Water and wastewater rates paid by Raglan ratepayers are set to go up by 10% again. The Waikato District Council’s draft annual plan for 2014-15 shows both the Raglan water rate and the waste water rate going up by this percentage. While the Waikato District Council has focused PR attention on its general rate increasing by 1.89%, once again it is planning big rate increases for Raglan and other Waikato towns.
The trend of past years is continuing with costs being transferred away from rural property owners and on to property owners in the towns. Example increase calculations buried deep in the draft annual plan show that Raglan residential and commercial ratepayers will have an overall increase in their rates of between 4% and 6%. See below for typical example calculation showing a 5% increase. (Supplied to Raglan 23 by WDC) Statistics NZ reports that the current rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index was just 1.5% from the March 2013 quarter to the March 2014 quarter. This means that Raglan rates are increasing at three to four times the rate of inflation. Meanwhile the Waikato District’s rural ratepayers will have a typical increase of just 2%.
The reason for this disparity in the increase is the Waikato Council’s refusal to introduce a targeted rate for rural roads. The District’s towns continue to subsidise the rural roads from the General rate which otherwise would be going down not up.
An improvement on WDC’s consultation this year is the holding of hearings into the Plan at local venues including Raglan and with hearings till 7.30pm. Another improvement is that there is to be a meeting about the Plan on Wednesday 30 April Bowling Club, James St 7 – 8pm.
The Plan and Other Consultation documents are available on the WDC website
Draft Annual Plan Summary 2014/2015 – Waikato Navigator
Draft Annual Plan 2014/2015
Community Engagement – tell us how we can do better
Rates for a typical Raglan Property would be:
|
Residential Property – Raglan |
0.1391 ha |
2011 CV |
|
1 dwelling |
420,000 |
|
|
Rate Type |
2013-14 Actual |
2014-15 Draft AP |
|
General Rate |
1,003 |
1,022 |
|
UAGC |
410.54 |
418 |
|
Hall |
25 |
25 |
|
Solid Waste |
100 |
103 |
|
Community Board |
18 |
18 |
|
Pool |
|
|
|
Stormwater |
194 |
194 |
|
Wastewater |
651 |
716 |
|
Water |
448 |
493 |
|
Capital Works |
|
|
|
TOTAL |
2,849 |
2,989 |
|
|
Base |
2,849 |
|
Movement |
$ Increase (Decrease) |
140 |
|
% Increase (Decrease) |
4.917% |
Please note: The only charge that uses the Capital Value is the General Rate.
Another reason for the rate increases is that water and sewage rates are rising by 10%. With the announcement yesterday of a proposed company to run these, the suspicion must be that they are being prepared for privatisation. Metering of water is another preparation for this – the current consultation on water bylaws – http://waidc.govt.nz/CMSFiles/8d/8d803596-f29a-4d58-bad9-abcdc107fb1c.pdf – includes 9.6 “All water connections in Waikato District shall be metered or progressed towards metering”.
Although the Mayors have now ‘clarified’ their position, I agree with you. This just looks like the first step to privatisation. As the Raglan water supply is unconnected to the others, if WDC doesn’t want to run the Raglan water supply why don’t we start up another community enterprise, ‘Xtreme Water’ and take it off their hands.
The bylaw is at http://waidc.govt.nz/CMSFiles/2b/2b3a04b1-b8bc-4299-b0a7-2ea1751b7fce.pdf.