Mayor Greg Brownless: What I want to see in the Budget

The Government needs to properly budget for the cost of social issues, writes Greg Brownless.

By Greg Bownless

COMMENT: The beauty of being asked to write an opinion piece on what I'd like to see in the Budget is that I get to communicate some issues that are of vital interest to the Tauranga City Council and its ratepayers.

The big and obvious issue for Tauranga is transport and roading, areas which
need significant investment.

Over the last year, I've been quite forthright about problems with NZTA and lack of action over both the state highways leading to our city and some of our local roads. But in talking with Government Ministers recently, progress is being made on working together to solve these issues provided we do our part.

For this to happen though will require funding, and so my big hope is for the Budget to include increased funds for roading improvements and transport infrastructure. We know that we will have to change some of our one person per car habits and will need to get on board with public transport, but all these initiatives do need money to get them
under way.

With the Port of Tauranga being such a big part of our lives I believe that investment in the road and rail links to the Port are of national significance to the economy.

The Budget could also consider other ways for councils to fund growth infrastructure to enable housing.

This has always been through development contributions underwritten by ratepayers. I'd like to take the risk to ratepayers out of the funding equation.

Giving locals incentives for growth would assist the Tauranga community.

A share of the GST on new housing is warranted. Here's an example. On a new
subdivision, all that councils and therefore ratepayers can hope to get back is
the amount spent on the infrastructure.

Government, on the other hand, gets all the GST on house and section sales, plus the income tax of those building them. Using $700,000 as an average house and section price, Government gets $91,000 in GST and Councils/ratepayers get zero. Take that over say 1000 new houses here every year and Government is reaping $91 million in GST alone.

A good chunk of this revenue should be passed on to councils and ratepayers.

This would assist in solving our housing shortage.

I'd like to see Government properly budgeting for the cost of social issues as these are often being passed on to councils for ratepayers to fund.

In my opinion, social issues should be funded by taxes, not rates. Yet councils are
constantly being called on to pay for the likes of security guards rather than
bothering the Police, and for programmes to address homelessness instead of
them being properly funded by the Ministry of Social Development.

Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless says social issues should be funded by taxes, not rates. Image/Getty

Small business is at the grassroots of our local economy, and it would be great
to see incentives for business and productivity, especially in businesses that
choose to be innovative.

Although purely a Central Government issue I'd like to put a plug in for
education and the need to incentivise quality teaching through decent salaries
for teachers.

I know many teaching staff who are dedicated to their profession
and it's time their salaries equated to other professions where similar
qualifications are required.

I fully realise there are other important funding needs I've left out of this wishlist and that just like in our own households it's impossible to fund everything.

Greg Bownless is the Mayor of Tauranga