KEY POINTS:
The global financial crisis and a new Government provide a new chance to change the way Auckland progresses.
If New Zealand is going to bounce back from our OECD slide it needs Auckland to be a globally competitive city.
Three things are easily identifiable as candidates for change and should demand the urgent attention of John Key and his senior Cabinet ministers. They include Auckland governance, funding and key infrastructure projects.
Fortunately, the Government has inherited the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance and has a running start. But with the change in governance we also need changes in the way Auckland is funded. Rates alone will not cut it for Auckland because it needs greater investment than rates can provide.
Auckland City Council is grappling with problems inherited from the previous council - a 10-year plan which included double-digit rate increases, water price gouging, increased development levies, increased service fees, and plans for city debt to blow out to more than $1.6 billion over the next decade.
The council is required to tackle the issue this year because it has a statutory obligation to prepare a new 10-year plan.
To slow the debt rise and abate the pressure on rates it is proposing significant cuts or delays in many projects around the city. It would appear to have little choice.
We will all have an opportunity over the next few months, before the plan is finalised, to tell them if they are on the right track and have picked the right projects to deliver affordable progress.
Besides project cuts, what many Aucklanders would hope to see is quantifiable reductions in the bureaucracy, including consulting costs and the like.
In Saturday's Herald John Roughan rightly raised the need for greater controls on wasteful council spending. The Te Wero bridge and its two-lane road through the Viaduct for example is a case of wasteful spending, doubtful planning and poor governance.
But here's the problem, the conundrum, the catch-22 - we also want to build a better city.
We need to invest more in Auckland and invest it differently, to produce the economic transformation Auckland and the country needs. Reducing council waste and investing more are not mutually exclusive.
Increasing council rates and levies in a reasonable and affordable way will only allow councils across the country to maintain what they have now. There's no way you could increase rates reasonably and fund the type of projects Auckland city needs as previous reports on rates acknowledge.
If we accept that all residents and visitors who use our city amenities need to contribute, not just rateable properties, then clearly changes must be made to local rating systems. It is inequitable that a household with four working adults makes the same rating contribution to the city as an elderly pensioner living in the house next door.
Many large overseas cities have accommodation levies that capture some contribution from visitors that can be tagged to tourism infrastructure ... but not in New Zealand. And how inequitable is it that we pay government GST on rates but government properties are not assessed for council rates?
Those are just some of the smaller opportunities for review. If we look at the huge infrastructure programmes carried out by Australian and American cities, most notably public transport and urban regeneration (in our case read CBD waterfront), many are funded federally or nationally.
In New Zealand the annual government tax take of $60 billion dwarfs all the councils' rates put together by a long shot. However, if all local councils were to receive only a small proportion of GST - say 1 per cent of the 12.5 per cent - it would transform our city and regional economies overnight.
Using government estimates, 1 per cent of GST would be approximately $900 million in extra funding annually for councils throughout New Zealand, with over $300 million for the Auckland region, calculated on a population basis. That amount would grow as our economy grows and produce a more sustainable and sustaining fund for Auckland economic infrastructure.
What projects could be funded you may ask. Well, big ones - completed properly rather than in a compromised or piecemeal way.
The Auckland CBD waterfront provides a good example. The Ports of Auckland view is to oversee an expansion that would have the container area grow bigger than the Auckland Domain.
Nothing short of a full Government-led review of North Island port and transport infrastructure is required.
If a significant chunk of the growth of our imports and exports can be economically accommodated by Tauranga and North Ports, and the Auckland port size controlled to a limited area in the east, then the central finger wharves and the Quay St end of Bledisloe terminal could be used to bookend a vibrant people's CBD waterfront and establish new cruise ship, convention and exhibition facilities. That would help transform the shape of Auckland's CBD waterfront and economy.
The recent election result, the pending local body governance reform, Auckland's large share of the country's population and economy, and the current economic global crisis are a collision of forces and events. They could mark a turning point in the way central and local government combine to plan and fund city growth.
Let's hope so ... because hanging our hopes for better progress on our current structure and rates funding and needed projects will in the long term prove unaffordable.
* Alex Swney is chief executive of Auckland's Heart of the City.
