The over-all proposed increase in the Council’s rate requirement, to apply from 1 July, is 3.09 per cent.

Each year the Council looks at how the different sectors of the city benefit from its services and divides its budget between them. It means each sector faces a different change in its rates.

Under the 2003/04 draft plan, the residential sector’s increase would be 3.87%, commercial/industrial ratepayers are facing a 0.45% rise and there is a 3.05% increase proposed for the city’s rural sector.

For rating purposes the average city residential property is worth $164,170. If the Council’s proposed 2004 rates package is adopted in July, that average property will pay rates of $952 a year (this year $919). The figure includes GST but does not include the Environment Canterbury (regional council) rate, which the City Council collects on behalf of ECan.

That $952 is an increase of $33 a year over this year — about 63 cents more a week.