Viewpoint – Resolutions for the Super City

Mid-January and New Year resolutions may still be going strong. More vegetables are being eaten, gyms are being attended and better organised people are running around the Coast. Whatever it is, I hope everyone is having a good summer, with more to come in the months ahead.

Next month, Auckland Council will unveil its resolutions for the year through its annual plan consultation. The Mayor has already started this process with his Mayoral Proposal, released last month. Among other things, he is calling for a 7.9 per cent rate increase, transport reform and for staff to investigate how asset sales can be sped up, including reserve land.

Council has been selling off properties and investments for well over a decade, so there is not a lot left. Many major income-producing assets generously bequeathed by the eight legacy councils are long gone. As for rate increases, they come as government ministers call for council rates to be capped at the level of inflation. It is only a few months since the last average increase on the Hibiscus Coast was over 10 per cent. In fact, 45 per cent of ratepayers experienced increases between 10 and 20 per cent, meaning that over the past three years the average rates bill has increased by more than $1000 a year, not counting water rates, which go up by an average 7 per cent.

In addition, council indebtedness is set to hit $15.6 billion this year, up a record $4.5 billion from 2022. Interest payments are approaching $702 million a year, or nearly $2 million a day.

While howls of indignation from the Mayor and others accompanied the prospect of a rates cap, the ongoing increases are simply unsustainable. Successive governments have assiduously avoided any review of the Super City’s performance, despite it being the biggest reorganisation in local government history and its entire justification being based on the premise of reducing costs to residents.

An unlikely opportunity, however, could emerge in the proposal titled ‘Local Board Reorganisation’, expected early this year, where local board amalgamation is on the cards. In 2009, the Royal Commission recommended just six local councils for Auckland, one of which was in the north, as well as a region-wide governing body. A revised version of that proposal, with more power to the local councils, might offer better control and accountability for communities and, in our case, more direct influence over the $1 billion in rates the Albany Ward now contributes every three-year term. It could also provide greater oversight of important issues such as the controversial Plan Change 120.

For me, that is a more attractive New Year resolution than simply allowing the Super City juggernaut to continue unabated. What do you think?