Tauranga City Councillors get 15.56% pay rise, mayor’s salary increases to $193k

Councillors Hautapu Baker, Kevin Schuler, Rick Curach, Hemi Rolleston, mayor Mahé Drysdale, deputy mayor Jen Scoular, Marten Rozeboom, Steve Morris, Glen Crowther and Rod Taylor pictured in May 2025. Photo / Alisha Evans

Tauranga City Councillors have received a 15.56% pay rise, increasing their annual salaries from $141,064 to $163,000.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale will earn $193,402 a year, up from $186,130, and deputy mayor Jen Scoular’s salary is $178,192, up from $161,285.

The councillors set their remuneration at a Tauranga City Council meeting today.

The Remuneration Authority set the mayor’s salary at $193,402 and the pool for councillors at $1,482,192, which was divided among them. The entire pool must be spent.

Councillors will earn $163,000 annually.

Drysdale said: “I think this is sensible”.

“Obviously, we’ve got a pool of money that we have to allocate and ... tried to keep that fairly consistent.

“Everyone gets paid the same with additional responsibilities for the deputy mayor, that her salary is between my salary and the councillors’.”

The Remuneration Authority also introduced a new allowance for elected members to install home security systems.

Drysdale recommended all elected members were eligible “on the proviso that we ensure we get value for money”.

He recommended a $4500 allowance for buying and installing the system, and $1000 annually for monitoring, callouts, and repairs.

“I’m sure we could install a system for under that for most people.”

Drysdale said there had been some “issues around the country” regarding security.

“I think it’s a sensible thing to have.”

Drysdale said elected members would need to submit a “threat assessment” application before getting a home security system.

“It doesn’t give you an automatic right to it, but if any of the elected members are worried about their safety, they are able to do that.”

If an elected member’s position became vacant, all allowances would be “scaled back proportionally” to the period of the financial year that the member was in position, Drysdale said.

Drysdale and council chief executive Marty Grenfell would approve all claims. Scoular and one other councillor would approve mayoral claims.

Council-controlled organisations - Bay Venues, Tauranga Art Gallery Trust, Tourism Bay of Plenty and Te Manawataki o Te Papa Limited - received no funding increase for the 2026/27 financial year.

The organisations were expected to continue being “financially prudent in the tough economic and cost-of-living environment Tauranga ratepayers are experiencing”.

Bay Venues - the council’s largest council-controlled organisation - may be exempted from the $0 increase, subject to council approval.

This would be discussed during the annual plan process.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.