Our budget challenge
Tauranga is a growing city, and we need to commit to a certain level of investment to maintain what we have now and to provide for our future growth.
The challenging economic outlook affects all our ratepayers, and we are conscious of the trade-off between investing in our city and what our ratepayers consider an affordable amount of rates to pay.
There has been some significant changes to our finances in recent months:
- Reduced NZTA funding
- Growing depreciation costs to maintain our existing and new assets
- Debt changes
- New requirement to balance the budget
- Slower growth
The costs of running the city
Our proposed solution
As a council, we are committed to prudent financial management. Our approach has been to find savings across all areas of council operations for more efficient delivery of council services and we’re prioritising our capital spend to what is most important for the city.
Key Annual Plan 2025/26 budget proposals:
- An overall rates rise of 12% - slightly below what was forecast in the 2024-34 Long-term Plan.
- $29 million in rates-funded savings across council’s day-to-day operational spending.
- A commitment to save at least $6.7 million more before the plan is adopted in June 2025.
- Reducing our capital spend from $544 million to $505 million.
While we don’t have much wiggle room for this annual plan, we want to understand what’s most important for Tauranga to help inform our future decision making. The decisions we are making now will help shape our next long-term plan in 2027.