Auckland councillors adopt budget lifting average rates by 2.5 per cent

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Auckland rates will rise an average 2.5 per cent after councillors adopted major elements of the annual budget.

Auckland councillors have adopted a budget lifting rates by an average 2.5 per cent and bringing in cheaper public transport for some.

The budget has absorbed some major cost increases, such as more than $12 million more for public transport costs and a $14 million blowout on the Aotea Centre refurbishment.

Councillors have also approved the proposed $5 million contribution to a new accommodation centre for the homeless and needy, being built by the City Mission.

However, the sign-off has come with warnings about the financial pressures facing the council in future years.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has delivered the third and final budget of his term in office (file photo).

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Average general rates will rise by 2.5 per cent, a figure praised by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

'While this big increase in investment is coming, we have kept rates to almost the lowest in the country.' he told councillors at the meeting on Wednesday.

Transport initiatives include allowing under-16s to use public transport free of charge on weekends and public holidays from September.

Mike Lee, pictured with mayor Phil Goff at the 2016 swearing-in, said the supercity was failing.

The fare-free move also covers weekend ferry services, excluding those to Devonport and Waiheke Island.

Ferry fares will be integrated with bus and train fares, allowing bus or train trips that connect with a ferry ride to be free of charge.

Unexpected hits that the budget has had to absorb include a $14 million increase in the cost of refurbishing the council's 2100-seat Aotea Centre.

The project had to be halted for a re-design with new cladding after new regulations were introduced following major fires at Grenfell Tower in London and in Melbourne and Dubai.

The change has extended the project completion by a year to mid-2020, but Goff said the re-work 'had to be done'.

Auckland Transport needed an additional $12.2 million to cover the higher costs of running public transport, including the cost of accommodating new rules giving bus drivers more regular breaks.

Tighter government security guidelines following the Christchurch mosque shootings mean an extra $3.8 million would also be spent upgrading security at major council facilities, such as stadia.

'It does affect a new environment we are living in,' Goff said, with a wider review of security at council premises also to be carried out.

Future budgets will be squeezed by the council having to absorb a half-share of the $1 billion increase in the cost of the City Rail Link.

'The funding, has removed capacity for funding major new initiatives for the next four years,' Goff said in his budget proposal.

Senior councillor Christine Fletcher, who is the running mate of mayoral challenger John Tamihere, said she was 'underwhelmed' by the budget.

Fletcher said the council had enjoyed a 'fair wind' with a change of government favouring public transport and initiatives begun by the previous mayor Len Brown.

'I would have thought there would be more of a sense of the possible,' Fletcher told councillors.

Councillor John Watson generally supported the budget, but said there had been a lack of accountability and explanation of blowouts such as on the City Rail Link project.

Councillor Richard Hills welcomed the adoption of the lower public transport fares initiatives, which he and councillor Chris Darby had championed.

'I would have liked a few bigger options but making school bus services free would have cost $6 million, and allowing school students to travel free on all public transport would have cost $40 million and needed 300 extra buses,' he told the meeting.

Senior councillor Mike Lee, who is pondering a tilt at the mayoralty, described 'the trend of unpredicted expenditure, increasing debt and lower than expected income' troubling.

'The supercity is not succeeding, it's failing,' he said.

Tamihere said budget 'blowouts' had pushed the council's ability to borrow to the limit.

'Under Goff's lack of leadership, Aucklanders are subsidising central government with spending on homelessness, housing, and social services,' he said in a statement.

Retiring councillor Penny Hulse described the last of 27 annual budgets she had worked on as candid, honest and strategic and praised the role of the mayor, especially in advancing public transport, waste policy and the environment.

'You've not made grand gestures, you've called it how it is and you held your nerve and have done what the city needs, and I hope you get the chance to see it through over many years,' Hulse told Goff.

Four councillors voted against the budget: Christine Fletcher, Mike Lee, Greg Sayers and Sharon Stewart.

The final version will be formally signed off next month.