Rates will soar under rival, claims Brown
Collins’ vow to keep levies within 5% of household income disputed
Auckland rates will soar under Labour-endorsed mayoral candidate Efeso Collins, says his nearest rival, Wayne Brown.
The businessman has pounced on repeated statements from Collins that if he wins the mayoralty, rates will be kept within a measure of 5 per cent of household income.
Until yesterday, Collins has not told voters how much he will raise rates, only that he will keep them below the 5 per cent affordability measure set by a major rates inquiry in 2007.
Council financial policy manager Andrew Duncan said Auckland rates sit at 3.37 per cent of the median household income. Even if rates rose by 10 per cent, he said, the ratio would only be 3.57 per cent.
To reach the 5 per cent threshold, rates would have to rise by 50 per cent, taking the average household rates bill rise from $3300 to $5000.
Brown said for Collins to use the affordability measure as his rating policy is a gobsmacking admission to pay for his big spending promises.
Speaking in South Auckland yesterday, the Manukau councillor repeated his promise to keep rates less than 5 per cent of household income without any mention of how much he will increase rates over each of the next three years if he becomes mayor next month.
When later pushed on the matter by the Herald, Collins said it was his intention to hold rates in the first year at 3.5 per cent, which is the figure in the current 10-year budget.
But when it comes to setting rates for years 2 and 3 in a new 10-year budget in 2024, Collins would not say how much rates would rise.
Asked if there could be significant rate increases, Collins said: “I am not ruling anything in or anything out.”
The new 10-year budget would be based on four levers of delaying infrastructure, cost efficiencies, rates and debt, he said.
“When we present the next longterm plan budget to Aucklanders, they will be able to tell us what they want and you are going to have to make trade-offs,” Collins said.
Whoever wins the mayoralty will be confronted with huge financial challenges, including an ongoing budget deficit of $90 million to $150m, deferring at least $323m of council and Auckland Transport projects and a looming budget blowout in the $4.4 billion City Rail Link.
Brown said Aucklanders have a stark choice — his promise of getting tough on spending or voting for Collins and “treating ratepayers like an ATM machine”.
He said he would raise rates less than the 5.6 per cent increase this year.
The engineer and former Far North district mayor said he could not put a figure on it until he understood the state of the council’s finances and the new cost of the City Rail Link.
Collins has led the mayoral race since June, according to the monthly polls done by the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and Curia Market Research. In the last poll of committed voters, Collins was on 22 per cent and Brown was on 19 per cent.