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| April 2001 |
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Calculating the rates- how the numbers add up To keep the City going and improve services requires an overall City Council rating increase of 2.20 per cent This is the figure included in the 2002 draft annual plan. Submissions are now being sought on the draft plan before a final plan will be adopted on 12 July. To arrive at the increase the total cost of all Council services for the next financial year was worked out, including operating costs, debt servicing costs, and the cost of the depreciation of assets. This came to $262 million. When services funded by user-charges are deducted, the figure is reduced by $87 million to $175 million. Taking into account the dividends received by the Council from its trading companies, interest earned, and the funding contribution to capital projects, the figure is reduced further to $139 million. This is the amount that the Council needs to collect by rates. All ratepayers pay a Uniform Annual General Charge set at $105. Deducting this figure from the total required from rates leaves $127 million This figure is then divided among the three different groups of ratepayers: residential, commercial and rural. The split is made according to a detailed formula, which assigns a share of the benefits from each Council service to each group of ratepayers. For example, roads are built to cope with the weight of commercial vehicles Therefore, the commercial sector is assigned a greater proportional share of the costs associated with roads — whereas libraries chiefly benefit Christchurch residents, who are required to pay a greater share of the cost of libraries than the other ratepayer groups When all the benefits have been shared among each ratepayer group, the split of the $139 million the Council needs to provide all its services is as follows:
This is 2.27 per cent more than the Council required from residential ratepayers last year. The $96 million is then shared among the 121,911 residential ratepayers according to property values
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