Essential city services like road maintenance are funded by rates.
If you’re a property owner you will soon receive your rates notice for 2020/21, setting out your contribution to the vital funds we need to keep the city running.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker says this is going to be a big year for Porirua, facing challenges including ageing infrastructure, rapidly changing Government policies, climate change, and now the aftermath of Covid-19.
People can make their rates payments a little easier by paying smaller amounts throughout the year with the EasyPay system, she says.
“This year, more than ever, we recommend people look at spreading their rates payments out by paying weekly, fortnightly or monthly – like you do with other costs like power or phone.
“It’s simple to set up and can take some pressure off.”
The Council sets its budget every year in the Annual Plan after determining how much money is needed for city services, such as water, wastewater, stormwater roads, parks, licenses and consents, rubbish, halls, swimming pools, Pātaka, libraries and events.
This year Council set the average increase across the city at 4.98 per cent, a lower amount than originally planned, in response to the pandemic’s impact on the community. This leaves a shortfall in funds needed to run the city, so Council will borrow to cover this.
“The 4.98 per cent is an average across the residential, rural and commercial sectors. But it’s your individual property’s change in value that determines what you’ll pay,” Mayor Baker says.
Every three years Council uses Quotable Value (QV) to give us new valuations for all properties in Porirua City so we can set rates fairly. These were done late last year and letters were sent to property owners, advising your new property value.
In most cases, property values went up significantly. A high demand for residential properties, particularly in the more affordable parts of the city, saw the average value of a residential property in Porirua increase by 34.5 per cent. If your property value increased by less than this, your rates increase will be lower than the average rates increase. If your property value went up more than this, your rates increase will be higher than the average.
“Some suburbs that had big increases in the last revaluations in 2016 have had smaller increases this year, and properties that didn’t have such a big jump last time may have bigger increases this time around,” Mayor Baker says.
In the last revaluations some parts of the city like Camborne, Pukerua Bay and Whitby had large increases in their rates. This year suburbs in the east and west are the ones seeing above average increases.
For more information, including information on each suburb, visit poriruacity.govt.nz/setting-rates
15 Jul 2020
