Rates good news may go down gurgler

By John Cousins
Hard-won clawbacks in Tauranga's proposed 16.5 per cent rates rise could be undone by multimillion dollar blowouts in the cost of fixing the city's stormwater drainage system.
The council was given the bad news yesterday, barely a day after nearly $2 million was carved out of this year's proposed rates take.
Now, nearly $3.8 million has been added to rates-funded stormwater construction estimates for the next three years, starting on July 1.
With at least $1.1m of these extra costs expected to be felt this year, it has set back hopes that the council could deliver a more politically acceptable rates rise - it is now sitting at 13.5 per cent.
The biggest impact will be felt over the next two years, a time when rate rises were looking more modest.
The city is urgently addressing its vulnerability to major floods following last year's May storm that devastated parts of Otumoetai and Pillans Point.
The cost increases were revealed by council engineers, who have refined the estimates of three major projects due to start within the next 5-10 months.
The most expensive was the Pillans tunnel scheme to divert stormwater from Bureta to the Waikareao Estuary.
With drilling expected to start in January, cost estimates have escalated from $4.3m to $7.2m. About one-third of the costs will fall into the financial year starting on July 1.
Stormwater capital works manager Angus Emslie said nearly $1.3m of approach pipelines were left out of the original estimates. And because it was notoriously difficult to accurately calculate the costs of tunnelling, he urged councillors to add 30 per cent to the bottom line - making a total increase of nearly $3m.
Another $800,000 had been added to the $4.2m Bureta Rd outfall project to improve the capacity of the system draining Otumoetai ridge.
Mr Emslie has proposed pushing the start of the $2.6m Courtney Rd drain upgrade back a year to 2008 because of the risk of consent issues.
This would leave construction of the Bureta scheme to start this October, the Pillans tunnel in January, the $4.6m Hull Rd/Aerodrome Rd scheme in March and the lower Pillans catchment scheme in July next year.
Project management costs have also increased by $125,000 a year for the next four years to employ a senior stormwater project manager. It brings the project management budget to $4.8 million.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said stormwater was a top priority for the council and they had to be kept updated so there were no surprises.