I'm worth it, says Banks on payday

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland Mayor John Banks is in line for a $40,000 pay rise to take his annual salary to nearly $140,000.

Mr Banks, who has a personal fortune of more than $10 million, said yesterday that he would donate any top-up on his $99,100 salary to charity or put it into a fund to fight the next election.

The salary increase comes at a time when the Auckland City Council is preparing to hit the poorest households with a rates rise of 8.5 per cent and increase net pensioner rents by up to 12.7 per cent.

Mr Banks will be one of the big winners when the Higher Salaries Commission releases details of salary and meeting allowances for the country's mayors, councillors and community board members at 5 pm today. Politicians will be given the details of their pay packages this morning.

The Herald has learned of Mr Banks' pay rise.

The commission has taken over setting local government pay rates from the Minister of Local Government, Sandra Lee, whose last determination was an across-the-board 2.5 per cent pay rise from February last year.

Instead of setting pay purely on a population basis, the commission has taken other factors into account when assessing the work of local body politicians.

Mr Banks, who is putting 70 hours a week into mayoral duties, said the job was much bigger than he envisaged.

His responsibilities now were far greater than those he had when he was a cabinet minister, a job which now pays $162,600 a year.

The Prime Minister earns $244,100 a year and backbench MPs, $90,500. Auckland city councillors who chair committees earn $33,440 and other councillors, $16,720. Councillors are also eligible for a fee when they attend meetings of $195/day.

Mr Banks said he would be encouraging councillors to take a pay increase because he believed ratepayers received value from them.

Papakura Mayor David Buist said last night that it was not right for him to be paid more than his salary of about $65,000 when the council was looking to increase rates by 10.1 per cent.

Hamilton Mayor David Braithwaite said he believed his salary of $82,000 was fair and any significant rise would be unnecessary.

"In my view there does need to be a balance between service to the community and fair compensation to elected officials for the work that they put in.

"There is a danger that if salaries to mayors and councillors get too high you begin to lose the community service aspect of the job and it really starts to look like a fulltime occupation."

Mr Braithwaite said there could be an opportunity to take some steps to change how councillors were paid.

It is understood that the commission has been considering bulk-funding councils to make the payment of local body politicians more transparent.

Political parties are looking to scrap tax-free perks in favour of taxable, lump-sum salaries.