Local Authority Statistics: March 2004 quarter

18 June 2004 Local Authority Revenue Increases

New Zealand's 86 local authorities increased their combined operating revenue in the March 2004 quarter to $1,170.6 million, according to Statistics New Zealand. This is an increase of $33.2 million (2.9 percent) compared with the December 2003 quarter. The major contributors to this increase were government grants and subsidies, up $10.8 million to $136.4 million, and interest revenue, up $10.6 million to $47.7 million. Compared with the March 2003 quarter, operating revenue rose by $120.4 million (11.5 percent).

Local authority expenditure in the March 2004 quarter was $1,083.7 million, an increase of $8.9 million (0.8 percent) on the December 2003 quarter. Increases in purchases of goods and services, grants and donations and all other expenditure (up $14.5 million); employee costs (up $0.9 million); and interest paid (up $1.7 million), were partly offset by a fall of $8.3 million in depreciation expenses. Total operating expenditure in the March 2004 quarter was up $93.1 million (9.4 percent) on the March 2003 quarter.

The combined operating surplus was $86.9 million in the March 2004 quarter. This result is an increase of $24.3 million on the December 2003 quarter and a $27.3 million increase on the March 2003 quarter. Brian Pink Government Statistician

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

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