Palmerston North's total 3.9 per cent rates increase is just one vote away from being struck.

City councillors on Monday made final tweaks to the annual plan and budgets for 2016-17, to be confirmed by the full council on June 27.

The main change was to put back a $50,000 sum to support the inaugural racing Gold Cup Festival in 2016.

The spending attracted wide support from submitters, but Cr Rachel Bowen made a bid to donate a council-funded summer concert to support the event instead of money.

However, mayor Grant Smith said the co-operative effort was not going to work.

The festival organisers were already well-advanced in planning a concert as part of the festival, and it would be held at Awapuni for the entertainment of paying racegoers, not in The Square as a free event for all.

Cr Chris Teo-Sherrell voted against the spending because he saw racing any animals for human entertainment as cruel, demeaning and barbaric.

Cr Aleisha Rutherford also withheld support because she thought the council would have been supporting a free public event in the central city for everyone.

The Gold Cup attracted the most submissions of any item in the annual plan, followed by support for more public transport, cycling and walking facilities, and a range of car parking issues.

Some of the changes made during the council's deliberations included new money for the Globe Theatre kitchen ($25,000), support for the New Zealand Rugby Museum ($20,000), a limestone pathway along Walkers Rd ($10,000), and deferring development of a natural burial cemetery.

Smith and chief executive Paddy Clifford said an emphasis had been put on making the city more exciting by having more events and festivals, including the Gold Cup festival, a new winter festival, the New Zealand Rural Games and Food Awards, Reel Earth Film Festival and Lions public fireworks display.

The final annual plan provides examples of the actual rates increase homeowners will pay depending on the impact of their property revaluations.

For a property that retained a land value of $125,000, the rates would rise from $2132 to $2222. However, if the land value had risen to $150,000, the rates for 2016/17 would be $2404.