Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is asking all elected members, including Local Boards, to help plug the forecast $295 million budget hole.

The Mayor’s 2023/24 budget proposal is seeking record savings of $130 million across Auckland Council and Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs), which includes Auckland Transport, Tataki Auckland Unlimited, and Eke Panuku Development Auckland.

Mayor Brown will ask Local Boards to find 5% in cost savings from their total annual funding of $298 million, when the 2023/24 budget proposal is put to the Governing Body next week.

The Mayor is asking Local Boards to work collectively to decide how best to achieve these savings, which might be found through a combination of reduced spending on Locally Driven Initiatives (LDIs) and asset-based spending, postponed spending on assets, and administrative efficiencies.

“Things are tough for everyone right now. Our Local Boards will have to play their part in the hard work being done to bridge this budget hole and create a sustainable financial path for the future,” Mayor Brown said.

“When the fiscal burden of the next financial year is behind us, I will be recommending that more funding and more decisions be controlled by Local Boards than ever before.”

Mayor Brown emphasised his commitment to real decisions being made by council committees and the Local Boards closest to the communities that are affected by them.

Ideally, he would like Local Boards, through the coming Long-Term Plan (LTP):

• to be given clear budgets for their communities;
• have the sole power to decide how to spend it;
• and have the sole political and legal accountability over funds and decisions.

The Mayor acknowledged some progress had been made by the previous council to empower Local Boards but argued, “we need to go further and faster”.

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