Rates, mate: Hamilton eyes fuel tax
‘‘It’s mostly the same people – ratepayers and people who buy petrol in the city are largely the same. So we do need to be careful of the ability to pay anyway.’’ Cr Paula Southgate
An 11.5-cent-a-litre fuel tax could be coming for Hamilton.
But even if it goes ahead it’ll only shave the mayor’s planned 15.5 per cent rate rise down to 9 per cent.
Petrol pumps around the city could siphon up to $10 million a year from motorists for Hamilton City Council transport projects under the proposed tax.
The fuel tax possibility was discussed on Tuesday.
And yesterday, councillors gave Mayor Andrew King and chief executive Richard Briggs the go-ahead to ask central government about piggy-backing on Auckland’s policy.
Hamilton City Council has scrambled to get in on the act since it heard that areas outside Auckland might be eligible.
The super city’s fuel tax should be in place by July 1, 2018, the Government has previously said.
Hamilton’s council will aim to get it started here at the same time, or soon after.
Minister for Local Government Nanaia Mahuta has previously said she wouldn’t rule out regional taxes to help keep rates affordable.
King said he was already doing what he could in talking to Government.
‘‘I need to know if this council’s going to back me should we pull this off,’’ he told his colleagues.
Briggs said if the fuel tax brought in $10m, the mayor’s proposed rate rise could drop from 15.5 per cent to 9 per cent.
There’s an opportunity for Hamilton, councillor Dave Macpherson said.
‘‘We have been long looking for alternative sources of revenue. Here’s an opportunity being presented to us, for a definable area of our work.’’
It wouldn’t collect enough to pay for all council’s transport costs, he said, but ‘‘it’s going to fund a significant chunk of them’’.
The tax was the way to go for Cr Rob Pascoe.
‘‘I don’t think we should stop there. I think we should be looking at a refund of our GST [on rates].’’
But Hamiltonians might get a double hit, Cr Paula Southgate said.
‘‘It’s mostly the same people – ratepayers and people who buy petrol in the city are largely the same. So we do need to be careful of the ability to pay anyway.’’
She supported the proposal in principle but said it seemed to have come up overnight and she wanted more information.
Auckland is looking at a 10c-a-litre charge, executive director of special projects Blair Bowcott said.
With GST, that would put an extra 11.5c a litre on Auckland fuel prices. Hamilton’s proposal is to do the same. ‘‘That would be a Hamilton-only tax, payable back to Hamilton City Council,’’ Bowcott said.
He’d had less than a day to work on the idea before presenting at council, but estimated it could bring in about $10m in income.
One of the risks is ‘‘leakage’’ – people heading out of the city boundaries to fill up – and councillors would have to work out whether the tax was the same for petrol and diesel.
A city council staffer is expected to go to Wellington for discussions tomorrow.
Councillors voted unanimously to ask if Hamilton City could be included in the new local fuel tax scheme.
They resolved also to ask Government to change the law to allow this as soon as possible after July 2018, and to consult with Hamiltonians about the plan.