The SOLGM Financial Management Working Party has developed a set of guidance to enhance the day to day financial management in local authorities.
Released in November 2009
The Price Is Right discusses an often neglected component of local authority funding reviews, and of the funding mix in general – prices, fees and charges. Local authorities have more flexibility to set these than is commonly appreciated, and they account for a significant proportion of local authority revenues, yet it is often rates that receive all the community and media scrutiny.
One of the often cited reasons for not exploring charging is that the legal requirements make it unclear what can and cannot be recovered by way of a charge. This document will explore the legal and constitutional issues involved with charging and should remove these doubts.
Charges are more than just a device for raising revenues/recovering costs, with some thought they can become an important policy instrument in and of themselves. The Price is Right guide shows you how your local authority can use its charging policy to achieve other objectives.
Click here to download The Price is Right - The Kiwi Version (PDF 690 kb)
Released in November 2008
This Guide is an update of Local Government New Zealand’s 1993 publication Principles and Guidelines for Local Authority Revenue Systems (those with longer memories of local government may remember this as ‘the Green book’).
The guide draws together all of the aspects that go into designing a good local authority funding system. In this guide you will find the following:
Click here to download The Green Book: Developing Local Authority Revenue Systems - An Update (PDF 908 kb)
Released in September 2008
"Dollars and Sense" - The Guide to Financial Management under the Local Government Act 2002 is the fourth in the series of guides to assist local authorities with the development of the 2006 LTCCP. This version of Dollars and Sense (September 2008) incorporates several changes to the section on revenue and financing policies made on legal advice. The most significant of these relates to figure 4.2 where an additional column has been included to allow for discussion of the costs and benefits of separate funding.
This version supercedes all previous versions of this Guide.
Download a complete copy of the "Dollars and Sense" >>>>
This Guide has been compiled to assist local authorities in setting charges under the authorities of the Local Government Act 2002 and other legislation. This Guide is not intended to be a substitute for the legislation, or for the policy judgements of elected members backed by appropriate policy, legal and other advice from their officials. Every effort has been made to ensure that the document is as accurate as possible. However, the Courts are the final arbiter of what the law actually means. For this reason, neither SOLGM nor any of the other individuals and groups involved in the preparation of this Guide accepts any liability for any loss or damage arising to any organisation from the use of the material contained herein. Reading or using the material beyond this point constitutes acceptance of the contents of this disclaimer.