Auckland Mayor, Len Brown. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Len Brown's draft budget is all about the good news while hiding the bad.
The mayor is committed to low rates increases and putting the brakes on debt. But what was missing from yesterday's politically managed event was detail of where the knife will fall to balance the books.
Brown's
minders have reprogrammed the message since last month when the talk was of the "need to make tough choices". Now, the document contains funding envelopes with the barest of detail.
The biggest target for "reprioritisation" is transport, where Brown could not stay silent, saying that, on current funding arrangements, major roads, park-and-ride projects and the northwestern busway would have to be canned.
Brown is pinning his hopes on building a "fully integrated transport network" from Aucklanders picking up the slack by agreeing to tolls, congestion charges and a regional fuel tax - and getting the green light from the Government for the new funding tools. The so-called "alternative funding programme" is critical to fund Brown's vision for the city, not least the $2.4 billion city rail link he wants to start in 2016.
