Tasman District Council’s Annual Report was adopted at today’s council meeting on time with a clean audit opinion. The Annual Report outlines the Council’s overall performance and position for the year ended 30 June 2024.

As well as reporting the Council’s financial position, the Annual Report is an important tool for reporting on the community outcomes and reflects the level to which we have met these objectives during the 12-month period.

The report, which will be made available to the public on the Council’s website, libraries and service centres, highlights a busy and productive 2023/2024 year for the Council.

As well as preparing our Tasman 10-Year Plan, we also had to manage a changing operating environment, following the change in government and the reversal of some of the legislation governing our services and operations.

Despite a time of economic challenges and legislative change, the 2023/2024 year has seen the Council continue to deliver a diverse range of services and projects to the community;

• Adopted the 10-Year Plan 2024-2034
• Launch of the eBus service
• Voted in favour of a Māori Ward for the Tasman District
• Completed the first phase of the Lower Motueka River Stopbank refurbishment
• Purchased a site for the Motueka Community Pool facility
• Waimea Community Dam became operational
• Signed relationship agreement with the eight iwi and three Councils of Te Tauihu
• Extensive community engagement on the Māpua Masterplan
• Completed several wetland restoration projects
• Upgraded Motueka skatepark and constructed Murchison pump track

Of the 109 non-financial targets that we set in Tasman’s 10-Year Plan 2021 – 2031, we fully achieved 74 (68%) and a further five were within 5% of the target.

Total Council net assets are now valued at $2.3 billion, which is an increase on the previous year’s total of $2.2 billion.

Our net external debt at 30 June 2024 was $247.78 million. This is below our net external debt cap of $250 million in our Financial Strategy (at that time) and also lower than the $249.9 million forecast in the Annual Plan 2023/2024.

Total rates revenue for the year was $100.05 million, and revenue from all other sources totaled $128.35 million.

The Funding Impact Statement Surplus from Operating Funding was $12.0 million, compared to a budget of $22.9 million.

The accounting surplus for the 2023/2024 year was $26.0 million compared to a budget of $33.9 million.

This was due to revenue being $8.4 million higher than budget and expenditure being $16.3 million higher than budget.

Budgeting and achieving a surplus does not mean overcharging rates. This is due to several factors, including non-cash revenue such as vested assets, which contribute to a council's surplus without actually increasing the cash available to the Council.

The revenue increase compared to budget was mostly due to non-cash vested asset income being higher than planned, driven by growth across the region.

Vested assets are assets created by others and transferred to Council ownership - for example, roads built by a developer as part of a subdivision.

The vested asset income increase was offset mostly by delays in government capital grants and subsidies and a fair value loss on forestry due to harvest and log price assumptions.

Increased expenditure was mostly due to increased interest costs, forestry expenditure, maintenance costs and increased depreciation.

Our long-term credit rating is ‘AA with a negative outlook’ (Standard and Poor’s (S&P). This rating reflects our strong financial management, budgetary flexibility, liquidity and low contingent liabilities; and enables us to continue to borrow funds at more favorable interest rates.

The negative outlook on the long-term rating, which is shared across the Local Government sector, reflects S & P’s view that our deficits are higher than previous expectations, amid rising costs of delivering council services and improved capital programme delivery.

However, it was also viewed that Tasman will likely begin to reduce its deficits and stabilise its debt burden from 2024/25 onwards – helped in part by the Waimea Community Dam moving from the construction phase to the operational phase.

It was also noted that strong financial management continues to support Tasman's credit profile.

© Scoop Media