Raglan rates up higher than cost indexes

Media releases issued by Waikato District Council about this years rates increase have focussed on the uniform annual charge that has increased by 2.32% percent. The Council has said that it has been prudent and careful in its budgeting. But using data supplied from Waikato District Council, the Raglan Website has proven in the calculations table below that the overall rate increase is much more than this.  The increase ranges from 5% to over 11% depending on the value of an individual property. This high level of increase is well above both the consumer price index and the local government index which was 2.34% last year.  It is even higher than the limit of 1% above the index adopted by WDC as policy.  i.e.  the maximum increase should be under 3.34%.

Due to the Rates Review approved by the same Councillors last year,  the rate increases will be even more than this for many Raglan ratepayers. The only good news about these increases is that they will be phased in as the Councillors approved a rates remission package. This automatic rate remission kicks in when there is an increase of $300. It only applies for residential properties and if an increase over $300 AND a percentage increase of over 10% occurs.  In the examples shown below,  the $193,000 property would probably miss out on the rebate,  but the $940,000 property with an increase of $406 would qualify for the rebate.  So the increase for both would be just over $100.   The rebate of $300 is a one-off for this year only.