Homeowners facing rates increases of 18% next year - the largest in the Queenstown Lakes District - are likely to react with hostility to the plans, community association chairman Peter Gibson says.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council will be asked to adopt the 2008/09 draft annual plan, including a proposed average rate increase of 6.8%, at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday morning.
However, a variety of new services meant residential property owners across the district would face double-digit increases next year.
Owners of a $350,000 home in Kingston would face the biggest increases, of 18.15% (or $172), while those with a $600,000 house in Queenstown would pay 13.09% ($227) more.
Those owning a $600,000 house in Wanaka would pay 10.79% ($209) more.
Owners of a $500,000 house in Arrowtown would pay 11.94% ($200) more, while there would also be double-digit increases for $400,000 homeowners in Glenorchy (10.98% or $171) and Hawea (12.97% or $218), and for $350,000 homes in Albert Town (12.06% or $197).
Mr Gibson told the Otago Daily Times that reaction to the news among Kingston's 169 permanent residents was likely to be "pretty hostile''.
The rates helped pay for new facilities in Queenstown, but many in Kingston felt they gained little benefit, he said.
"We are 40 minutes [drive] away. The people here don't really use things up there [in Queenstown]. We go south,'' he said.
The town had appreciated council investment in street lights and roading, but was still waiting on water and wastewater facilities.
QLDC finance general manager and deputy chief executive Stewart Burns said the higher rates for residential properties reflected the council's kerbside recycling scheme and plans for a new refuse collection system.
The new refuse system, with each household receiving a 120-litre wheelie bin for refuse, aimed to encourage waste minimisation, and amounted to a "cost transfer'' for residents who hired private wheelie bins at a cost of $282 a year, he said.
The proposed rates included $26.4 million in targeted rates and $16.2 million in general rates, with the district's uniform annual general charge - the blanket fee applied to each property - increasing $32 to $413 per property.
The waste management charge would also increase, by $117 per residential property to $269, although it would drop $9 to $143 for non-residential properties.
The first full year's operation of the Queenstown Aquatic Centre also featured, with the introduction of an Aquatic Centre charge of $59 per property for Wakatipu ratepayers only, Mr Burns said.
The plan also included increases to cover contracts for residual waste collection, the new council-controlled organisation Lakes Leisure Ltd and the establishment of an in-house horticulture team, he said.
District-wide roading projects, a second new reservoir for Lake Hayes, Project Pure and Project Shotover wastewater disposal projects and public transport improvements were also included, he said.
The total capital programme provided for in the draft annual plan was $66.28 million, including $9.43 million in debt repayments, he said.
If adopted, members of the public would have from Saturday until May 5 to make submissions on the draft plan, followed by a public hearing scheduled for May 15 and 16.
The plan would then be finalised before being formally adopted at a council meeting on June 27.
Mr Gibson said Kingston's proposed rates would be discussed at the association's meeting on Friday, but it was likely many residents would become resigned to the increases.
"I guess at the end of the day there's no free lunch. Someone has got to pay for these things. Unfortunately, it's the ratepayer,'' he said.
The draft annual plan was available on the council's website, and a full summary would be available next week. Feedback and information sessions would be held in Wanaka on April 23 and Queenstown on April 24, at locations yet to be confirmed.
