She said "the cans have not been kicked further down the road" to arrive at the zero figure.
The council is presenting its draft annual plan at a meeting today, with a zero increase in the rates take, though changes in different rating areas may lead to increases for some and decreases for others.
The council had proposed an increase of 8.7% in its long-term plan but had dropped it to zero after work by councillors and staff over the past month.
The council had recorded some hefty rates increases in the past few years.
For the 2023-24 year the rates had risen 18.8% and the following year it rose by 16.6%. Last year, the increase was set at 5.5%.
Ms Calvert said the council had set out to keep the rates as low as possible while still delivering on environmental responsibilities to both the government and the community.
"Our chief executive Richard Saunders indicated that he could achieve a zero rates increase on average across Otago with the support and hard work of our staff," she said.
"Richard is committed to watching over all of our spending and ensuring that any unnecessary spending is curtailed.
"The Large-Scale Environmental Fund had been delayed, which had positive budgetary effects, but in general the cans have not been kicked further down the road."
She said the council did not have large amounts of infrastructure and very little borrowing.
"This makes the financial decisions of our council a little different from other councils.
"However, the basic rules apply. If you spend more on some projects, for example, cycleways and public transport infrastructure, you will have less money for such as delivering clean water and sending away dirty water."
The regional council is the sole owner of Port Otago and with government reforms proposing to get rid of regional councils, questions have been raised over the port’s future.
Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis suggested the port be placed in the hands of Dunedin.
Ms Calvert said Port Otago belonged to all of Otago.
"Find another way of keeping your spending within budget, Dunedin."
When asked if the zero rates rise would provide a good signal to the government and its suggested changes, she said the general view from government was that there were at least one too many layers, and the regional council layer was one the government found easy not to like.
The most effective reorganisation would be to create a unitary council covering the whole of Otago, with a significantly enhanced community board structure, Ms Calvert said.
The council had looked to find savings and efficiencies internally, such as staff capability reducing reliance on consultants and contractors, the annual plan said.
A pause by the government in planning framework had led to under-spends.
Reduced government co-funding for public transport had also impacted rates.
Planned public transport service improvements for Dunedin, the Queenstown ferry and regional transport trials were now judged to be unaffordable.
The council had secured government funding for some resilience projects in flood protection and drainage.
