Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
Mayor Tim King, left, and council chief executive Janine Dowding say in the Annual Report that 2019-20 has been a year of change and challenges. The 2019-20 result was also helped by some external factors that moved in the council’s favour including increased revenue from forestry, lower borrowing costs, low inflation and higher-than-anticipated population growth. Net debt of $156.2m is below the council’s self-imposed cap of $200m and almost $35m lower than $191m that had been forecast. Rates revenue for the year was $76m, comprised of $40.3m from general rates and $35.7m from targeted rates. Revenue from all other sources such as forestry harvesting; fees and charges; development and financial contributions as well as capital subsidies and grants totalled $84.5m.