Mayor Wayne Brown promised to “fix Auckland”. The new 10-year budget, or Long-Term Plan, is the strategy through which he can step up and repay the faith Aucklanders placed in him to recalibrate the economic, social and environmental settings of Tāmaki Makarau.
Brown’s first budget was abaptism of fire and ended in compromise, with a partial sale of airport shares to pay down debt, some cuts to services and a record 7.7 per cent rise in household rates.
The 10-year budget, says the mayor, has the over-arching theme of strengthening Auckland’s long-term financial and physical resilience after last summer’s devastating storms and the lingering cost of living crisis.
This as Auckland Council’s finances are stretched to the limit with historical under-investment in infrastructure, population growth, a cost-sharing deal with the Crown to fund $2 billion of flood recovery and resilience works, and insurance costs increasing by 40 per cent.
What’s more, the council has to work through the financial implications of the new Government’s commitment to repeal the Three Waters legislation and remove the 11.5c-a-litre Regional Fuel Tax worth $150 million a year in revenue and an equal amount in central government subsidies.
The mayor blames previous councils for papering over funding gaps with debt and committing to new mega-projects, saying “the chickens are coming home to roost”.
On the hustings, Brown spoke about his track record of fixing big, complex, troubled organisations. It doesn’t get any bigger and more complex than Auckland Council, the largest council in Australasia, where the heavy lifting takes place in the 10-year budget every three years.
In his first media release on the budget process this week, Brown hinted at what’s in and out. Less money on new projects, more money for maintaining existing assets. More cuts to council bureaucracy, and streamlining back-office costs for the council and council-controlled organisations (CCOs).
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo / Michael Craig
There will be cuts to low-priority raised speed humps and cycleways. Brown is keen to push ahead with “time of use” charging to tackle congestion, which is likely to find favour with the Government.
The mayor is silent on rates at this point, but it’s no secret officers have come up with a starting point of 14 per cent, and Watercare is considering raising water bills by more than 20 per cent.
These figures will come as a shock to family budgets. After determining what items from the pre-Christmas mayoral proposal go forward for public consultation in February, the mayor and councillors must work hard at keeping rates to a minimum while keeping key services ticking over, maintaining existing assets and investing wisely in the future.
