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Where the money goes

The Council gets its money from a range of sources, including rates, borrowing, and money from user charges and government grants, especially from NZTA for roading.

This section outlines how much money comes from each source and what we will spend it on this year, including both operating spending and capital investment.

Where the money comes from

In 2020/2021, only 49% of our total funding will come from your rates, as shown in the table below.

Sources of Council funding %
Rates 49%
Borrowing 17%
Transfers from reserves 13%
Fees, charges and operational subsidies 11%
Dividends and interest 4%
Capital contributions, grants and subsidies 4%
Development contributions 2%
Total 100%

What we will spend this year

In 2020/2021, we will spend a total of $1.14 billion on operating and capital costs.

The table below shows where the Council plans to spend the funding collected during 2020/21.

The Other classification includes $67.5 million of interest costs either externally recovered or not allocated to Groups of Activities. Capital expenditure for the Canterbury Multi Use Arena, IT projects, and Performing Arts Precinct are also included.

Total Council spending, by activity $000 %
Three Waters 246,678 22%
Communities and citizens 229,773 20%
Roads and transport 178,356 15%
Other 89,005 8%
2019/20 Capital carry forwards 88,747 8%
Parks, heritage and coastal environment 76,411 7%
Refuse disposal 56,798 5%
Debt repayment 50,629 4%
Regulatory and compliance  41,626 4%
Strategic planning and policy  37,110 3%
Housing 26,652 2%
Governance 17,905 2%
Total 1,139,690

100%