Mayor pledges fair and balanced 10-year budget

The Mayor is confident he can hold average rate increases around the rate of inflation and save 125,000 Auckland households from double-digit rate increases.

The Strategy and Finance Committee will meet tomorrow to decide the final form of the council’s 10-year budget, the Long-term Plan (LTP).

Len Brown has already announced his plans to drive $1.7 billion of costs out of the LTP in efficiency savings.

“I am holding to an increase of 3.6 per cent for the 2012/13 year while maintaining current council service levels.”

Auckland Council has been working with the government to develop a transition policy that will mitigate the impact of moving to a single rating system.

The proposal would see individual residential rate increases capped at a maximum of 10 per cent per year and business rate increases phased in over three years.

The Mayor remains firm in his belief the proposed Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC) of $350 should remain.

“Changes to the rating system outside of the council’s control are already stretching households, like the move to capital value and the even distribution of rates – increasing the UAGC would make things even harder.”

“A real focus of the LTP has to be jobs. To become the world’s most liveable city, Auckland has to become an economic powerhouse.

“On the waterfront, other projects which will create hundreds jobs, such as the cruise ship terminal and the super yacht refit facility, have been re-worked and the cost to ratepayers slashed.”

“Ten thousand Aucklanders gave their views on the Long-term Plan and we have listened, appropriate changes have been proposed and large cuts to non-essential services and projects have been delivered,” says the Mayor.

ENDS

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