File ref: IRC-3533
22 July 2022
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #19750 email]
Kia ora Chris
Thank you for your request made under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
(the Act), received on 25 June 2022. You requested the fol owing information:
• Council policy documents / directives associated with surplus revenue and what occurs when there are
surpluses.
• If the above is not available, please provide what these surpluses were earmarked for each year.
• What are the governance requirements around surpluses and where does al the money go to?
• Please provide any and all meeting notes, minutes, governance discussions around council having a
moratorium and only spending what the rates take al ows them to?
Wellington City Council (the Council) has
granted your request for information.
Please refer to Item 1 for the Council’s Revenue and Financial Policy regarding the Council’s surpluses from
the previous financial periods and the governance requirements around surpluses. Discussions around the
adoption of the Revenue and Financial Policy on 30 June 2021 can be found online.
https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/meetings/committees/council/2021/06/30.
Discussions around the surplus and deficit spending is discussed at our Annual Plan and Council meetings.
These are publicly available documents.
Our financial strategy is set every three years to address the challenges we are facing and how we plan to
address them. However, these are constantly evolving, with one of the biggest chal enges in the past two
years managing the significant financial impact that COVID-19 continues to have on both the Council and the
city.
Balanced budget
The Council operates a balanced budget. This means rates fund only what is required to pay for the services
delivered each year. A balanced budget also helps ensure that we are not passing the costs of running the
city today onto future generations and guards against imposing costs on Wellingtonians now for projects that
may not deliver any benefits to them in the foreseeable future. This means each generation pays its fair
share. Therefore, our goal is to achieve an end-of-year result where rates revenue equals operating
expenditure. This is called the underlying result (surplus or deficit) and is best measured as a percentage of
total operating expenditure. Operating expenditure has increased by $9.7m or 2 percent year on year. This
mainly relates to an increase in depreciation expense following the revaluation of our infrastructure assets
last year.
Underlying position
The underlying operating result provides a comparison with the 2020/21 Annual Plan budgeted rates
requirement we said was needed to achieve a balanced budget against actual operating performance. To get
from the reported net surplus/(deficit) to the underlying result, the following are excluded:
• revenue received for capital items (for example, funding received from NZTA for roading projects)
• non-funded or debt-funded transactions, where, through the Annual Plan, it was deemed
appropriate that the costs were shared across future ratepayers, or where another organisation is
liable for the funding
• separately funded items where funding was through other mechanisms
• ring-fenced activities for housing and waste minimisation.
The above explanation is taken from the Annual Report 2020/2021 volume 1 and further detailed explanation
can be found on page 21 (link below). Similar explanations for previous years can be found in the matching
annual reports.
The below table is the net surpluses for the Council, which provides you with a comprehensive explanation
of where all the revenue and expenses goes.
Year
Net surplus/(deficit) for
Link to the
Link to the online
Link to Annual report
the year
online
Annual Plans
discussion at the
$000
Annual
Council meetings
Reports
2021
7,457
Annual
Annual Plan
https://wellington.govt.
Report
2020/2021
nz/your-
2020/2021 - Pg 84
council/meetings/com
Volume 1
mittees/council/2021/1
Pg 21
0/27
2020
15,146
Annual
Wellington City
https://wellington.govt.
Report
Council's Annual Plan nz/your-
2019/2020
2019/20
council/meetings/com
Pg 18
Pg 100
mittees/council/2021/1
0/27
2019
(23,867)
Annual
Long Term Plan
https://wellington.govt.
Report
2018-28
nz/your-
2018/2019
Pg 145
council/meetings/com
Pg 32
mittees/disestablished-
committees/city-
strategy-
committee/2019/09/25
2018
32,207
Annual
Wellington City
https://wellington.govt.
Report
Council Annual Plan
nz/your-
2017/2018
2017-2018
council/meetings/com
Pg 32
Pg 90
mittees/council/2018/0
9/26
2017
31,679
Annual
Wellington City
https://wellington.govt.
Report
Council Annual Plan
nz/your-
2016/2017
2016/17
council/meetings/com
Pg 19
Pg109
mittees/council/2017/0
9/27
2016
34,106
Annual
wcc-long-term-plan-
https://wellington.govt.
Report
2015-25-volume-
nz/your-
2015/2016
1.pdf
council/meetings/com
P13
(wellington.govt.nz)
mittees/council/2016/0
Pg176
9/28
2015
35,542
Annual
Wellington City
https://wellington.govt.
Report
Council Annual Plan
nz/your-
2014/2015
2014/15
council/meetings/com
P26
Pg89
mittees/council/2015/0
8/26
Wellington City Council | 2 of 3
2014
27,609 in FY 2014/2015 AR
Annual
Wellington City
https://wellington.govt.
27,465 in FY2013/2014 AR
Report
Council Annual Plan
nz/your-
2013/2014
2013-2017 Pg 64
council/meetings/com
P18
mittees/council/2014/0
8/27
Total
159,879
Notes:
Figures taken from Statement of Comprehensive Revenue & Expense
2013/2014 –net surplus was restated and the adjustment made in 2014/2015.
Below are the documents that fall in scope of your request and my decision to release the document.
Item Document name/description
Decision
1.
Revenue and Finance Policy
Release
Right of review
If you are not satisfied with the Council’s response, you may request the Office of the Ombudsman to
investigate the Council’s decision. Further information is available on the Ombudsman website,
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Please note, we may proactively release our response to your request with your personal information
removed.
Thank you again for your request, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kind regards
Asha Harry
Official Information
Wellington City Council | 3 of 3