A record dividend paid out by Whitestone Contracting Ltd to its owner, the Waitaki District Council, could dampen rates rises in future years.
Tomorrow, the council will make final decisions on its long-term community plan, which will set rates revenue, and what ratepayers pay, for the next 10 years.
The draft plan indicates an overall rates increase of 3.1% in the coming financial year, with increases of more than 6% for the two years after that.
But a dividend of $676,750 paid by Whitestone - the largest it has ever distributed - is good news as councillors consider the budgets this week.
The large dividend comes from tax planning.
The council has already committed $80,000 from the dividend, leaving it with $596,750 to minimise the impact of rates increases forecast in the long-term budgets.
Staff are suggesting to councillors ways that the dividend can be used to reduce future rates increases, favouring using it to offset loans, which then reduces interest payments, bringing a long-term benefit.
The loan-funded projects which councillors could look at include unsubsidised roading at the Oamaru harbour-side area, water schemes and roading projects.
How to spend the dividend is only one issue councillors will grapple with.
They will also have to decide on three issues that were controversial in public submissions on its long-term plan - a tourism rate, extending the Oamaru business area and changing the way the uniform annual general charge (UAGC) is paid.
The UAGC changes would mean more householders paid the annual fee, which is used to help fund people-based activities.
Already, it has caused an outcry from holiday-home owners in camps alongside the Waitaki River, Kakanui River and Moeraki.
They could see huge increases in their rates.
Some commercial premises sublet to businesses and mixed-use properties face similar impacts.
The council has already decided to delay the introduction of a tourism rate for two years, to the 2011-12 financial year, to provide breathing space to consult further and consider formulas.
The extension of the Oamaru business district from central Oamaru to include main-road properties in north and south Oamaru will also cause debate.
