Wayne Brown’s proposed ‘future fund’
Animal control improvements, higher parking fees and cutting ‘stupidly expensive’ roading projects are all in Auckland’s long-term plan.
Auckland Council’s long-term plan sets out what goals Auckland Council wants to achieve during the next 10 years, how they will do it and how they’re going to pay for it. Among the issues Mayor Wayne’s Brown wants to tackle are:
DOGS, RUBBISH, SENIOR CITIZENS
Brown is proposing $5.9 million a year to “allow our animal control officers to do their job more efficiently, including improvements and increasing capacity in our animal shelter network”.
However, there won’t be any extra funding for Haumaru Housing, which provides affordable housing for older people.
Brown also wants to look at reducing the number of rubbish bins across Auckland homes.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND ‘STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE’ROADINFRASTRUCTURE
The current proposal could also mean increased parking charges and fines, hiring more parking enforcement staff and charging people for the time of day they use car parks.
Brown says Auckland Transport (AT) asked for $24 billion to get a programme
up and running to support transport services around the city, but will instead receive $14b.
The plan also proposes a weekly public transport pass so adults would pay a maximum of $50 a week to use public transport.
Brown has asked AT to improve the route from Māngere to the airport.
“Rather than focusing on a $40b tunnel,
I would like to see AT investigate the feasibility of a low-cost bike ferry connecting Northcote and the city centre.”
Funding for cycleways will be cut by $141.5m in the current proposal, which will leave $430m for a lower-cost cycleways programme on top of existing funding for current cycle projects.
He agreed to renew roads around the city if the Government can fund $5.5b. “We can only afford to fund renewals if we have access to a fair contribution from the National Land Transport Fund. The Government has underfunded road renewals in Auckland for years. They must fully fund their 51 per cent share of this spend and I will be lobbying the minister and Waka Kotahi hard to make sure this happens,” Brown says in the proposed plan.
And Brown is proposing more than $190m to progress removing level crossings, including those needed for City Rail Link and to level crossings in Takanini.
AUCKLAND FUTURE FUND
An Auckland Future Fund will mean the council will be self-insured, which should save $25m in insurance costs, according to Brown.
The fund will include the $3b-$4b investment from selling shares in Auckland Airport and leasing the ports around Auckland to a private company for the next 35 years.
Brown says at least $1b is currently earmarked to cover insurance of all council-owned assets and he expects the fund to rake in 7.5% a year, a minimum cash return of $180m to stop bigger rates rises.
This will secure the future financial position of the council, giving future generations more choices about investing in Auckland’s future, he says: “Future councillors in 20 years won’t be sitting in a gloomy town hall looking at even gloomier financial statements.”
He says leasing the ports could give more than $2b back to Aucklanders, compared to the $900m in dividends that the ports would provide over the next 35 years if council kept full ownership.
There is a target to sell $300m in Auckland assets over 10 years and finish work on the Auckland golf strategy.