Aucklanders face a much bigger rates debate than the 7.7% they've just been dealt

Thursday, 7 September 2023

Two publicly-funded electric ferries are being constructed at McMullen and Wing for Auckland Transport

Todd Niall is the senior Auckland affairs reporter for Stuff.

ANALYSIS: Aucklanders who thought this year’s council budget – and the 7.7% residential rates rise – was as bad as it gets, need to brace for a far bigger debate playing out behind closed doors.

The 10-year budget discussion kicks off publicly just before Christmas, setting not just the next year’s budget, but also a template for the following two as well as broad thinking for the seven years after.

This year’s budget was set near the peak of the cost-of-living crisis and had some seemingly one-off moves to keep the lid on rates rises. But nothing is really a one-off.

Restoring the Natural Environment and Water Quality Targeted Rates – which were halved for a year – is the equivalent of a 3.3% rates rise alone.

This year’s decision to sell 38% of council’s shareholding in Auckland Airport leaves the question open over whether to sell the rest.

Hundreds of jobs have been cut at council and its key agencies, reflecting changed priorities in the 2023/24 budget. But those priorities hold for the coming decade.

For example, will Auckland Council really permanently withdraw from hosting vibrant, visitor-generating major events and promoting initiatives to boost its economy?

And will council give up any serious extra effort to reduce its carbon emissions, which have continued to rise, despite local and global commitments by the city to halve them by 2030?

Getting people out of cars will be a big part of debate over Auckland’s 10-year plan in 2024.

The refreshed 10-year plan takes the city through to 2033 and past that 2030 deadline. Without a significant boost in funding to enable a halving of car trips, the commitments are worthless.

There’s need for massive reconstruction work following the extreme weather of 2023 and plans to change parts of the city to make them more flood resilient.

Whether or not Three Waters/Affordable Waters is pursued by the government elected on October 14 is another unknown. Even if the process continues as planned, it’s still not clear whether, or by how much, council’s books will improve by losing its Watercare unit – and perhaps responsibility for the stormwater network.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown during the council’s budget debate in June 2023.

And just as daylight comes every day, so do new arrivals come to Auckland, with the population forecast to rise from 1.7 million to 2.2m in 30 years, people needing roads, transport, community facilities and parks, public infrastructure and council services.

Council’s social and economic investment in its more deprived western and southern communities survived a likely axing in the 2023 Budget, but can that commitment survive?

While the 2023 Budget was a short-term exercise aimed are trying to get the dollars to balance in a difficult year, the proposed 10-year plan will reflect more of an ideological view on priorities.

It’s the mayor who proposes the first take on both the annual and 10-year budgets. Much of Wayne Brown’s initial, uncanvassed thinking on the 2023 Budget had to be dialled back after public consultation and the need to achieve political consensus.

For a mayor who arrived determined to “fix” council, a 10-year budget that will be signed off halfway through his term will be in his mind, almost a legacy, and one he will want to more strongly reflect his view, than the eventual 2023 budget was.

The proposal which will launch public and political discussion occurs in December, with consultation early in 2024 prior to a sign-off in June.