Rates rises picked over funding cuts
ANALYSIS: It was an irony that may have escaped even the locals: that the ta¯huhu hall they gathered in to consider a grim council budget proposal was built with proceeds from airport shares.
One of the things the 50 or so residents were being asked about was whether Auckland Council should sell its $1.9 billion airport shareholding to reduce debt.
When the airport was corporatised in 1988, Auckland’s local bodies each got a slice, and the ta¯huhu Borough Council sold its shares straight off, funding a new town hall/ community centre.
In that sale, the proceeds were spent in the community, something the locals doubted will happen in the 2023 version proposed by mayor Wayne Brown.
Once they’d put their adhesive dots on the council’s feedback board, it was 27 to 1 in favour of keeping the shares and raising rates or increasing debt instead.
It was one of several strong messages from one of Auckland’s poorer suburbs on a budget seeking to close a forecast
$295 million deficit with big cuts to community funding.
Five big boards on key budget decisions circulated around tables of locals in a speed-dating format. The sticky dots rejected the proposed $125m cut to council spending, 22 to 1.
A $1.2m cut for their own Ma¯ngere-O¯ta¯huhu Local Board, one of the deepest of the 21 local board cuts, also got shown the door 21 to 1.
The council’s standard-format ‘‘Have Your Say’’ presentation pitched an incomplete version of the benefits of selling the shares, and underplayed the potential affordability of a higher rates rise.
Meetings like this are happening across Auckland during March as public views are sought on Brown’s budget proposal.
The sticky dot count will make its way back to the council’s city centre headquarters, but probably without the passion and strength of feeling expressed on the night.
There was anger over cuts that would hit hard communities that had pulled together to lead local Covid-19 vaccination efforts, and support those hammered in the recent flood emergencies.
‘‘How can you sleep at night, knowing we in the community will pay heavily?’’ asked one.
Another asked: ‘‘How can these budget cuts undo all that our ancestors have done?’’
The proposed big hike in the charges to hire council facilities was raised by one speaker familiar with a sports club.
‘‘The club pays $580 for their lease and that’s great because we can afford it, but they will be getting an increase to $6000 and over. A lot of clubs can’t afford it; it’s going to buckle our community,’’ she said.
The budget proposal presented by Brown is mostly a spreadsheet affair, compiling numbers that deliver the desired result, with little input from officials outside the finance area.
But in ta¯huhu, as the rain began to fall outside, the locals knew what mattered to them: communities supported by council grants, within initiatives backed with funding from their local board.
Airport share dividends stopped for three years, thanks to Covid-19 border closures, but have now resumed – though Brown’s personal view is they won’t get back to previous levels.
Other parts of the city may have different views, and those in
ta¯huhu knew they would have to work hard to be heard, as budget feedback in the southern suburbs is the lowest in the city, and the dominant voices so far being 81% Pa¯keha¯ and aged over 35.
Consultation closes on March 28, when the debate moves to the council table.