The rates increases in an early draft of the Tauranga City Council's budget for the next 10 years would add close to $1000 to the average rates bill over three years.
Yesterday the council publically discussed the first cut of financial figures for the draft Long Term Plan 2018-28, a budget for the next decade.
The early increase estimates for the first three years were 13.6 per cent next year, then 7 per cent and 10.7 per cent.
In real money terms that meant the average ratepayer, paying $2770 in rates this financial year, would face an additional $377 next year, $220 in year two and $360 in year three.
Mayor Greg Brownless said the numbers represented a "worst case scenario" of the council having to pay for everything.
It could decide to modify, delay or not to do some projects to bring the costs down, or find other revenue streams - perhaps through central government, he said.
The council's chief financial officer, Paul Davidson, said this long-term plan was unlike any other the council had produced, with a host of new challenges including a massive capital spending programme driven by the city's growth.
Chief executive Garry Poole suggested the situation warranted a different approach to public consultation than the usual.
He wanted the council to seek the community's views on which projects should be top of the list, rather than the council prioritising and then taking that view to the city.
He suggested two questions:
- What do you want for your city?
- What are you willing to pay for?
Councillor Steve Morris said that approach was a "cop-out" akin to the council saying to the community "We give up, can we have your help".
"I think the community elected us to show a bit of leadership and, to that end, I think we need to take control of the budget and work through it with the staff."
He suggested the council produce two budgets - a "high" version and a "low" version - to show the community what it could have and the cost, and where it could save money but miss out on things.
Tauranga already had the highest average residential rates of New Zealand's metropolitan cities (Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington, Tauranga) according to a report prepared by the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, Morris said, and he could not approve the current increases.
Larry Baldock hit back, saying it was "irresponsible" to call Tauranga the highest.
"I think what our citizens are interested in is what they are getting for the money they pay here," Baldock said.
"Comparisons can be useful, but sometimes they are point-scoring in the media, which is what you're doing today."
Councillor Terry Molloy said he did not believe it was a cop-out, and taking the full set of options to the community would give them a chance to say what was important to them.
Bill Grainger agreed with Molloy, saying it was the first time in his four terms the council had considered asking people what they were willing to pay for.