Residents rally against Tauranga rates increase, demand spending cuts

Tauranga resident Jan Gyenge wants a 0% residential rates increase this year. Photo / John Borren.

• A rally will urge Tauranga City Council to stop spending so much and remove the proposed 12% rates increase.
• Organiser Jan Gyenge claims the increase is unsustainable and urges the council to become ‘lean and mean and fully efficient’
• Mayor Mahé Drysdale says $80 million in savings is needed for a 0% rates rise, highlighting infrastructure challenges.

A public rally will be held to urge Tauranga City Council to “stop the spend” and remove rates increases.

Jan Gyenge has organised the event at 1pm at Memorial Park on Sunday.

The Tauranga resident said the proposed overall rates increase of 12% was unsustainable.

It was 4.8 times inflation of 2.5%, which was “unconscionable,” Gyenge said.

“People are doing it really tough, it’s just not sustainable.”

The rally wasn’t about asking the councillors to listen, but expecting them to act differently when they voted on expenditure, Gyenge said.

She said she wanted them to reduce their appetite for spending.

“It’s about the whole organisation becoming lean and mean and fully efficient with absolutely no wasted cents at all.”

Gyenge looked at the council’s financials and said finding an extra $40m in savings would avoid the need to increase residential rates.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale told her during an Annual Plan submission hearing it would take $80m in savings to avoid a rates rise.

Gyenge said the rally was needed to draw the community together and provide an outlet for people unable to take part in the hearings.

“It’s not an isolated event. It’s the beginning of the community saying ‘this is what we think’. It’ll be a platform for the community.”

Consultation on the council’s draft Annual Plan ran from March 28 to April 28. Hearings for submitters were on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association chairman Tim Maltby at the Annual Plan hearings on Tuesday. Photo / Alisha Evans

Tim Maltby, chairman of Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association, said there was a lot of worry and anger in the community about council spending and rates increases.

Most people’s wages increased in line with inflation at about 3% but a rates increase of 12% was unaffordable, he said.

“We believe that the council vastly overspends.

“If council was reorganised and restructured so that it was running properly and doing its job properly, there would be no need for a rates increase.”

It was “totally unrealistic” to expect a zero rates increase this year, Maltby said.

“If the elected members wanted to, they could force a restructure that would drastically reduce costs and it would be quite feasible to have a 0% rates increase [in future].”

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale. Photo / Alex Cairns

Drysdale said the Annual Plan tried to strike a balance between investing in the city and affordability for ratepayers.

“The real challenge is we have a huge infrastructure deficit. We’ve got to be mindful of that when we’re prioritising our money.”

The council found $29m in savings to lower the rates rise from 20% to 12%, he said.

The councillors had given the organisation direction to reduce costs across its operations to keep rates down, Drysdale said.

Disestablishing 100 roles was part of this, he said.

“I can assure the people of Tauranga that elected members are working hard to find savings, which would reduce the average rates increase for 2025/26 to 10%, or lower.”

To achieve a 0% residential rates rise, $80m in savings would need to be found, he said.

“Taking $80m out of a business our size in one year is actually nigh impossible.”

Feedback the council received during the Annual Plan consultation ranged from people saying facilities were not meeting the needs of the community to concern about rates, Drysdale said.

There were 968 written submissions and 96 people asked to speak at the hearings.

Final decisions would be made after Annual Plan deliberations on May 26, he said.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.