Auckland ratepayers submit in favour of regional fuel tax

Friday, 16 March 2018

'If pressed on other options', the level of support for an Auckland region fuel tax would be even greater than Long Term Plan submission results, Mayor Phil Goff believes.

Half of Aucklanders now support introducing a regional fuel tax to help fund billions of dollars worth of transport infrastructure, Auckland Council figures show.

Of nearly 2900 written submissions the council has so far received for its Draft Long Term Plan, 50 per cent support introducing the tax already approved in principle by central Government.

A 2015 OECD report said road congestion was already costing Auckland $1.25 billion per year in lost productivity.

Forty-one per cent of written submitters opposed the additional tax with 8 per cent giving 'other' responses, the council's 10 year budget update newsletter said.

Mayor Phil Goff, whose preference is a regional fuel tax before congestion charging, said the polling result was 'good'.

In 2017, the Automobile Association found a 10 cents per litre regional fuel tax would 'ballpark' cost the average Auckland motorist driving an average car $125 per year extra.

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'Aucklanders understand that with big population growth and hundreds of extra cars on the road every week, the response of doing nothing simply leads to more congestion and gridlock and billions of dollars in lost productivity,' Goff said.

Although the poll showed there was still substantial opposition to a fuel tax, some of the objectors stated they preferred a congestion tax, he said.

'If pressed on other options', the level of support for an Auckland fuel tax would be even greater, Goff believes.

It's estimated Auckland needs $27b extra spent on transport infrastructure in the next 10 years just to stop congestion from getting worse.

A 2015 OECD report said road congestion was already costing Auckland $1.25b per year in lost productivity.

Last year an NZIER report found Auckland's real GDP would increase by between $488m and $842m a year if infrastructure improved.

Sixty per cent of respondents for an October, 2017 Stuff online poll supported a 10 cents per litre Auckland region fuel tax.

A fuel tax would raise twice as much money as the rates-embedded $114 per household Interim Transport Levy, which expires in June this year.

Last year the Automobile Association found a 10 cents per litre regional fuel tax would cost the average Auckland motorist driving an average car $125 per year extra.

If no fuel tax replaced the levy, there would be an 8 to 9 per cent rates increase on top of the general rates increase of 2.5 per cent plus any other targeted rate to fill the infrastructure funding void, Goff said.

Central Government would match dollar-for-dollar monies raised through a regional fuel tax through the Government's National Land Transport Fund.

SURPRISING SUBMISSION RESULTS?

Automobile Association spokesman Barney Irvine said the survey result was not a surprise.

'People aren't leaping in the air with delight but if they have to pay more this is one of their preferred ways of doing that.'

The Long Term Plan submission results broadly reflected the association's own polling conducted last year, Irvine said.

Older, male Pākehā Auckland region ratepayers still dominate Long Term Plan submissions, providing 71 per cent of submissions so far.

Sixty per cent of submitters where 45 or older while 56 per cent where male.

No one local board area of Auckland's 21 areas commands more than 9 per cent of submissions received.