Kaipara District Council has agreed to consult with the community on a targeted rate for the district’s museums.

The decision to consult on the targeted rate was discussed in yesterday’s (Wednesday 5 March 2025) council meeting for the Annual Plan 2025/2026, which sets out budgets and work programmes for the upcoming financial year.

The targeted rate could apply across the district and be collected from all ratepayers on behalf of the Mangawhai Museum, Kauri Museum and Dargaville Museum.

As part of the Long Term Plan deliberations in 2024, elected members agreed not to collect a targeted rate from Mangawhai ratepayers on behalf of the Mangawhai Museum. Instead, they directed staff to investigate potential future funding support for all three of the district’s museums – Mangawhai Museum, Kauri Museum and Dargaville Museum as part of the Annual Plan process for this year.

Consultation is set to open on Monday 7 April and run for one month.

Kaipara District Council Mayor Craig Jepson said he was pleased on where elected members had landed.

“We have had one of the worst economic downturns in recent times and we are contending with ongoing recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, the Mangawhai rainfall event, and most recently the Mangawhai tornado. All of that has put a huge amount of pressure on council, on staff, and our finances.

There is still some work to do before June to finalise the budgets and work programmes for the year ahead, but our discussions today confirm we are in line with what we said we would do in the Long Term Plan and looking at an average 8.9 percent general rates increase after growth for the coming year.

Through the Long Term Plan process we also heard from the community that there is appetite to support museums and recognition that there are limited ways for them to source funding. As requested by elected members, staff have gone away and done a lot of work to look at funding options for the district’s three museums, including meeting with museum representatives.

A targeted rate collected across the district is one way to help the museums and next month we will be coming out to the community to see if this is something they support.”

The Annual Plan 2025/2026 is expected to be formally adopted at the end of June and sets out budgets and work programmes for the upcoming financial year. New rates will take effect 01 July 2025.

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