The 2012-22 community plan had a clean audit and represented an affordable financial position, council finance manager Stewart Burns said at a council meeting in Wanaka.
In 2009, the council was criticised by the Auditor-general for releasing a long term plan that, if everything was done by 2019, would have imposed $393 million debt on ratepayers.
The 2009 document was created on the back of ratepayer demand for improved infrastructure, following a period of strong development and population growth.
The Auditor-general's criticism prompted the council to begin a heavy prune.
Mayor Vanessa Van Uden last week paid tribute to former mayor Clive Geddes and his administration for starting the budget slashing.
She also acknowledged the work of Mr Burns, other council staff and present councillors.
"I think it's been a very worthwhile thing. I would like the community to know there has been a significant amount of time and energy put in to come up with something that is affordable and allows us the expectation to grow," she said.
Mr Burns said capital expenditure for the next 10 years would be much lower than previously forecast.
"It amounts to $554 million, which represents a reduction of $278 million or around 33% compared to 2009," he said.
Public submissions will be advertised this week and a hearing will be scheduled next month.
One significant change is to developer contributions policies.
It has been proposed that developers can apply for a reassessment of contributions after 12 months instead of being bound to that amount for the term of the consent (usually five years).
Mr Burns said some contributions could go up, others could go down.
A second policy change is to treasury management, enabling the council to borrow from the local government funding agency on more favourable terms than may be achieved in the market place.
Cr John Mann, of Queenstown, said he was concerned the 10-year plan included dividends from Queenstown Airport Corporation.
The proposal to put half the dividend towards rates reductions and half into "some sort of lotto fund that you apply for" was "highly risky and not in the best interests of this community," he said.
"This funding belongs to all the community, amounts to about $3.5 million . . . I think we should ask our people over this consultation period whether they like this idea of anointing projects that are worthy . . .We have a great deal of money and an opportunity to permanently reduce rates using this fund," Cr Mann said.
Mayor Vanessa Van Uden said submitters could address the issue.
"What would the community like to do?" Mrs Van Uden asked.
