13 September 2013

New taxes for Auckland in the pipeline if Brown re-elected

“Mayor Brown’s restatement that he intends to deliver the City Rail Link by 2016 indicates Aucklanders will be paying new taxes sooner rather than later if he is re-elected,” says Mayoral candidate John Palino.

“The taskforce the Mayor established to find new ways he could increase Council revenue estimated that a new road tax would be required by 2021.

“But because Auckland rail patronage is decreasing at a time it needs to be rapidly increasing, the Mayor is not going to get central government funding for the CRL until around 2020.

“The Prime Minister committed to the rail link on the provision that Auckland rail numbers start heading towards 20 million passengers per year well before 2020. But they’re currently at 10 million, having dropped from 11 million a year ago.

“That means the Mayor will have to go it alone on the CRL and Auckland residents will have to pick up the tab for an investment that needs $2000 for every man, woman and child in the region.

“But the Mayor has also said he doesn’t want to raise rates. Something’s got to give.

“And at this stage it looks as though those giving will be motorists through a road tax and everyone through the Mayor’s new city tax proposal.

“Auckland doesn’t need new taxes’ we need better value from our existing ones. That means a sinking lid on Council staff and a reappraisal of existing expenditure.

“But this cannot happen under Mayor Brown. He’s too politically invested in a programme of spending which we now know will not improve congestion and too committed to controlling Auckland’s growth through a bloated bureaucracy,” said Palino.

The Office of John Palino 63 Ponsonby Road, Auckland
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