Mount Maunganui's planned visitor information centre has been restored to its iconic status after the council today reversed its controversial decision to cut rates funding by $1.5 million.
Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless, who previously voted in favour of pruning the council's contribution from $4m to $2.5m, was instrumental in tipping the scales back in favour of the larger amount.
Councillor Larry Baldock's move to revoke the June 8 decision succeeded today by a vote of 6-5, with the mayor the only person to shift their position on the issue.
Mr Brownless said he could see the positives and negatives of what most councillors were saying. It was important to give the project the best chance of seeking the additional $1m of external funding, including from a tourism fund set up by the Government.
The $1m was needed to give the building an iconic status through a huge roof, lifting the final cost to $5m. Tourism Bay of Plenty was tasked with finding the additional $1m.
Mr Brownless said the Government took $100m a year in GST from tourism from which the council received nothing. "It is time the Government sent some of that money from GST back to the regions."
He said businesses that directly benefited from tourism should be contributing to the organisation that made their business possible - Tourism Bay of Plenty.
Cr Baldock succeeded with a compromise funding solution that would shift the funding burden in the 2018-19 financial year more towards the city's commercially-funded economic development rate.
This year's $500,000 contribution to the project would be funded equally by the general rate and the economic development rate. But instead of the remaining $3.5m being equally funded, the council agreed today that 70 per cent of the $3.5m would come from the economic development rate in 2018-19.
This bigger contribution by the city's commercial ratepayers would be included in the council's draft 2018-19 Long Term Plan - making it subject to further public consultation.
The council also agreed to ask the downtown rejuvenation Technical Advisory Group to review the visitor information centre options and cost estimates prepared in 2016.
The final Annual Plan included a 3.8 per cent average rate increase for 2017/18.
This was larger that the 1.7% to 3.1% increase forecast in the Long Term Plan.