Land Transport NZ's cash-back promise

The Government's transport funding agency is promising an early return of cash that was earmarked for Auckland and other regions but which is being diverted to nationally ranked projects.

Land Transport New Zealand has written to councils throughout the country with an assurance that money raised for regional needs through the recent 5.6c a litre rise in petrol taxes and higher road-user charges would be reimbursed over two years.

The agency's damage-control exercise follows an outcry from Auckland transport politicians at word that $80 million of a regional entitlement of $176 million for next year would be taken to meet a shortfall for national priorities.

Although the promise to return the cash went some way toward placating the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee at its monthly meeting yesterday, there were concerns of hefty rates rises to match the extra fuel-tax money.