‘Just Not Sustainable’: Rally Planned To Protest 12% Rates Increase

Saturday, 17 May 2025, 8:10 pm
Article: Alisha Evans - Local Democracy Reporter

A public rally is being held urging Tauranga City Council to “stop the spend” and remove rates increases.

Jan Gyenge organised the event at 1pm at Memorial Park on Sunday.

The Tauranga resident said the proposed overall rates increase of 12% was unsustainable.

It was 4.8 times more than inflation of 2.5% which was “unconscionable,” Gyenge said.

“People are doing it really tough, it’s just not sustainable.”

There was a majority of councillors who were voting expenditure through, she said.

The rally wasn’t about asking the councillors to listen but expecting them to act differently, Gyenge said.

She said she wanted them to reduce their appetite for spending.

Gyenge looked at the council’s financials and said if they could find an extra $40m in savings then they wouldn’t need to increase residential rates.

“It’s about the whole organisation becoming lean and mean and fully efficient with absolutely no wasted cents at all.”

The rally was needed to draw the community together and to provide an outlet for people who were unable to take part in the annual plan hearings, Gyenge said.

“It’s not an isolated event. It’s the beginning of the community saying this is what we think. It’ll be a platform for the community.”

Consultation on the council’s draft annual plan ran from March 28 - April 28. Hearings for submitters were on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association chairman Tim Maltby said there was a lot of worry and anger in the community about council spending and rates increases.

Most people’s wages increased in line with inflation at around 3% but a rates increase of 12% was unaffordable, he said.

“We believe that the council vastly overspends. They waste money.

“If council was reorganised and restructured so that it was running properly and doing its job properly, there would be no need for a rates increase.”

It was “totally unrealistic” to expect a zero rates increase this year, Maltby said.

“If the elected members wanted to they could force a restructure that would drastically reduce costs and it would be quite feasible to have a 0% rates increase [in future].”

Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale said the annual plan was trying to strike a balance between investing in the city and affordability for ratepayers.

“The real challenge is we have a huge infrastructure deficit. We’ve got to be mindful of that when we’re prioritising our money.”

The council found $29m in savings but that brought the rates rise back to 12% from 20%, he said.

The councillors had given the organisation direction to reduce costs across its operations to keep rates down, Drysdale said.

Disestablishing 100 roles was part of this, he said

To achieve a 0% residential rates rise $80m in savings would need to be found, he said.

“Taking $80 million out of a business our size in one year is actually nigh impossible.”

Feedback the council received during the annual plan consultation ranged from people saying facilities were not meeting the needs of the community to concern about the proposed rate rise, Drysdale said.

There were 968 written submissions and 96 people asked to speak at the hearings.

Final decisions would be made after annual plan deliberations on May 26, he said.

“I can assure the people of Tauranga that elected members are working hard to find savings, which would reduce the average rates increase for 2025/26 to 10%, or lower.”

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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