This Hot Off The Press contains data from the Quarterly Local Authority Survey. The series starts in the September 1992 quarter.
The Quarterly Local Authority Survey covers the non-trading activities of local authorities, such as local government administration, provision of water supply, roading, parks and reserves, and planning and regulation. Data relating to Council Organisations (formerly called Local Authority Trading Enterprises) is not included in this release.
The Quarterly Local Authority Survey covers New Zealand's 12 regional councils and 74 territorial authorities.
Accounting treatments currently vary among the local authorities, making it difficult to produce a set of strictly comparable statistics. These results are therefore subject to revision as more data become available.
The quarterly survey results are reconciled to the equivalent annual values provided by the annual Local Authority Census.
Statistics for recent periods are based on information available at 31 March 2008. Consequently, the quarterly movements presented are provisional and subject to revision as additional and improved data become available.
Revisions
Each quarter, revisions may be made to the previously published series. Changes resulting from the inclusion of new and revised annual information are generally limited to once a year, and are usually released with the March quarter statistics.
Seasonally adjusted estimates
The X-12-ARIMA package has been used to produce the seasonally adjusted estimates in tables 3 and 4. Seasonal adjustment aims to eliminate the impact of regular seasonal events (such as annual cycles in roading activity, winter, or annual holidays) on the time series. This makes the data for adjacent periods more comparable. All seasonally adjusted figures are subject to revision each quarter.
Further information about seasonal adjustment is available on the Statistics New Zealand website: www.stats.govt.nz.
Definitions
Rates
All forms of rates are included in this category. Water rates are included, but rates collected on behalf of other local authorities (such as regional councils) are excluded. Water sold by meter is excluded. This series is not seasonally adjusted.
Regulatory income and petrol tax
Regulatory income includes fees and fines. Examples of fees and fines include parking fines, building consents, and dog registration. Admission and parking charges are excluded from this category as they are treated as sales of goods and services.
Government grants and subsidies
Includes grants, subsidies and levies from central government and other local authorities and organisations. Grants treated as equity contributions are excluded.
Investment income
This category predominantly consists of income from interest and dividends. From the beginning of the series until March 1996, both interest revenue and dividends were seasonally adjusted. After March 1996, dividends became quite volatile due to large and irregular payments of dividends to local authorities from Council Organisations, and seasonal patterns were no longer apparent. Interest revenue continues to be seasonally adjusted and combined with actual dividends in the investment income category.
Sales and other income
Includes trading receipts such as admission charges, water sold by meter, and other miscellaneous operating income. Excluded are any sales of goods and services charges within the authority (such as overheads).
Employee costs
These are gross earnings of all paid employees in the authority. Included are such items as overtime, sick and holiday pay, benefit allowances, value of free supplies, and severance and redundancy payments. Levies paid to the Accident Compensation Corporation and employer contributions to superannuation schemes are also included in this category.
Interest paid
Interest paid on public debt and other liabilities.
Depreciation
Depreciation on fixed assets, including infrastructural assets, restricted assets, buildings, mobile equipment, other plant, machinery and office equipment. The value of depreciation has increased significantly over time as a result of increases in fixed asset values and legislative requirements for councils to fully fund depreciation (Local Government Amendment Act (No 3) 1996). This series is not seasonally adjusted.
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Purchases and all other expenditure
Includes rent, insurance, fuel, postage, repairs and maintenance. Contracts for services from separate council trading enterprises are also included as are grants and donations to other organisations, bad debts and income tax. Purchases of goods and services charged within the authority (overheads) are excluded. Also excluded are loan repayments, purchases of fixed assets, and contract payments for the construction and development of fixed or community assets.
Net gains from non-operating or extraordinary items (non-recurring items)
The statistics contained in this release exclude gains on items outside the normal course of local authority business. These include: the sale of assets above or below book value; gains or losses on the revaluation of capital assets; and gains or losses on extraordinary exchange transactions and infrequent transactions, as distinct from ordinary operations, which are beyond owner/manager control or influence.
More information
For more information, follow the link from the Technical notes of this release on the Statistics NZ website.
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