People now get a chance to have their say on whether a draft 6.4% rates rise by the Waitaki District in the coming financial year is acceptable.
Yesterday, the council settled on its budget for the 2008-09 financial year. It will now call for public submissions on its annual plan, which close at 5pm on May 13.
Yesterday's meeting lasted less than an hour, but Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton emphasised that did not detract from the decisions the council had already made.
"That may appear rushed,'' he said of the budget meeting. "But the real task has yet to come.''
Mr Familton said the council had already had two meetings which had extensively examined the draft budget.
"It is now time for the public to make its voice heard and us to listen to them,'' Mr Familton said.
Once the council had heard the public submissions, it would reconsider the budget and eventual final rates rise.
On February 26, after its first budget session, the council arrived at a draft 7.2% increase in its total rates take. On March 11, it reduced that to 6.4%, slightly less than the 6.8% the council projected two years ago in its long-term community plan.
The draft annual plan has a total 2008-09 budget of $36.2 million, of which 64% or almost $23 million will come from rates and the rest from other revenue such as fees and charges. In the current financial year it is collecting $21.5 million in rates.
However, the effect on what individual ratepayers will pay will vary across the district, depending on new property valuations and special rates they pay.
Some urban properties will have rates increases less than the 6.4%, but those in Oamaru will have slightly more because of an increase in the town's amenity rate which pays for new footpaths, stormwater, kerbing and channelling.
The draft plan will now go out for public consultation from April 12 to May 13. Ratepayers will get information about the plan and the effect on their individual rates.
Public meetings are planned at Palmerston on May 1, Oamaru on May 5 and Kurow on May 7 as part of the consultation process.
A final decision on the budget will be made on June 10 and the annual plan formally adopted on June 24.
