Your rates are working harder than you think
28 Apr 2026
If someone asked you what your rates pay for, you’d probably be able to name a few things like maintaining roads and footpaths, mowing reserves, and looking after pools, sportsgrounds, parks, and playgrounds.
We’re also who provides you with drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and who you deal with when you want to build, buy or renovate your property, and when you run a local business.
We care for the local environment and the people who live here. We understand our history, delivery for the present and plan for our communities’ future needs.
We’re also around when stuff happens. When the rain pours or the ground shakes, when a pipe bursts, when a dog won’t stop barking, or when your neighbour’s are partying too hard. No week is ever the same, except for the fact that we’re here for our community 24/7.
If you’d asked for a receipt detailing what your rates paid for over a year, it might look something like this:
- maintaining 200 kilometres of stormwater drains across the district
- upgrading water supply and treatment at Waikanae, Hautere and Ōtaki to improve reliability for thousands of homes
- supplying 6,000,000 litres of treated drinking water to households
- treating over 12,000,000 litres of wastewater every single day
- delivering approximately $70 million of capital projects delivered across the district every year
- chipsealing approximately 18 kilometres of road every summer season
- responding to severe weather events, including public information and clearing trees and debris to keep roads, paths and waterways safe
- keeping our public spaces pristine with 6,643 hours of weedeating, approximately 10,000 hours of mowing and 1,500 hours on leaf blowers
- maintaining 100 kilometres of walking trails, cycleways, and bridleways provided
- planting more than 22,000 native plants, shrubs and trees.
- maintaining and upgrading 51 playgrounds and local reserves
- issuing 595,000 library items (including more than 100,000 e-books) every year from our four district libraries
- looking after approximately 150,000 visitors to our three pools
- teaching water safety programmes to more than 7,350 registrations for tamariki and whānau
- supporting major events like the Kāpiti Coast Art Trail, Quinovic PGA Golf Tournament, and Ōtaki Kite Festival, attracting thousands of visitors to our district.
- responding to nearly 100,000 customer service enquiries—connecting with our community in person, online, and over the phone to make sure you got the info and support you needed.
- responding to 99% of official information requests on time
- welcoming approximately 250 new New Zealand citizens at local ceremonies
- registering 8,000 dogs and reuniting approximately 3-4 a week with their families or finding them loving new homes and a fresh start
- supporting community organisations to grow capability and access funding
- helping to create local employment outcomes for young people
- kept you informed with regular e-newsletters, media articles, web content, and many consultations and community engagement sessions.
That’s just a bit of what we do, but it’s a lot. And it’s expensive – our Long-term Plan 2024-34 capital works programme alone has a budget of more than $600 million!
We don’t have income-generating assets like some councils, so 70 percent of our income comes from your rates. Thank you for helping make Kāpiti a great place to live, learn, work, play, run a business and socialise!
The rest of Council’s income comes from grants and subsidies, fees and charges, development and financial contributions, and other operating revenue. This means we continually balance the cost of providing services that benefit everyone in our community with affordability to our ratepayers.