AA Members are more optimistic about the plan of carriage that has emerged from the Auckland Transport Alignment Process, but the optimism – and the willingness to pay – won’t last if they don’t see progress says the organisation.
Auckland AA Members are ready to consider new ways to pay for the city’s transport infrastructure, but the most straightforward – and popular – tool may be one the Council already has at hand.
That’s the main viewpoint taken from a recent survey of 1100 Auckland AA Members, which tested views on three of the leading possibilities for alternative funding: a regional fuel tax, a motorway toll, and the sale of Council-owned assets.
AA Principal Advisor – Infrastructure Barney Irvine says that a majority of respondents supported or would “grudgingly accept” each new funding tool. However, it was an actual option – the $114-per-year interim transport levy – that had the most support. The levy is a targeted rate established last year, with a three-year horizon.
“Rates rises, in general, are unpopular, but people don’t see the levy in the same way,” says Irvine. “It seems to be an amount of money that most households can cope with, and to which most have now adjusted.”
Irvine says the survey results highlight the need for Council to look seriously at whether any of the new schemes make sense, before bringing them to the public for consultation. It isn’t a case of rejecting the plans, but making sure it’s asking the right questions.
The beauty of continuing the transport levy, he says, is that without changing anything, we would generate about $175 million of investment each year, around $100 million of which would come from the Council side.
“That’s a big chunk of Auckland’s share of the funding gap, and rather than replacing the levy with an entirely new scheme, we’d want Council to have a good look at whether we can keep it and make up any shortfall with simpler funding options.”
Auckland is likely facing an interim period of around a decade before the Government starts overhauling the fuel tax system and replacing it with road-user charges, says Irvine.
“The question is: if this isn’t a long-term fix, can complex new schemes be justified, especially when we’ve already got a perfectly adequate system to tide us over?”
Whichever plan the Council brings to the table, it’s going to have to show Aucklanders that new charges are worth it.
“AA Members are prepared to pay more, but there’s a lot of frustration beneath the surface,” says Irvine.
“Many would rather cut the plan than pay more. They resent the idea of paying more to a council which they see as wasteful and mismanaged, and they’re looking at the existing transport system and asking: ‘Why should I pay extra so they can just dish up more of the same?’”
