Mayor’s latest CRL plan will lead to huge rate increases, early start means Government pays less

The Auditor General has clearly indicated that the Council must show realistic figures as to how and when funding for the $2.4 bn Central Rail Link (CRL) will be achieved.

This information must be included in a Consultation Document inviting public submission on the 2015-2025 Long-Term Plan.

The intervention by the Auditor General follows approaches to her by a small group of Auckland councillors who were concerned about the Mayor’s proposal to spend another $287 million on the project without Government contributions or involvement.

As a result of the Auditor General’s intervention the Mayor has been forced to call an emergency meeting of the Governing Body of the Council next Tuesday to revise the Plan and to defer the proposed starting date for the main work on CRL until 2018.

The Mayor, having been forced to delay a start on the project until credible funding is in place, is still demanding that $400 million dollars should be spent in the next three years, including $287 million dollars of ‘enabling work’ to build the tunnel from Britomart through to Wyndam St.

This is to ‘enable’ Precinct Properties to redevelop its site adjacent to Britomart.

The Mayors latest proposal will cost millions more because the Government has repeatedly stated it will not provide half the total funding until 2020 – unless the Council can meet very conservative targets for passenger and workers in the CBD

The Council is nowhere near meeting those targets

This means that the so-called ‘deferred start’ to the ‘main works’ on the tunnel will not bring relief for ratepayers – and in fact, by the time the Government steps in, in 2020, the debt for the CRL will be just under $1 billion – all underwritten by Auckland’s ratepayers.

This would lead to the Government paying only half of the outstanding cost of $1.4 billion – about $700 million, which is only half of the sum expected in the original proposal in 2012.

In addition to the additional interest on debt, ratepayers will also be liable for CRL operating costs of $112 million each year – and rising.

The impact on rates will start in 2018 despite the Mayor’s claim that there would be no impact until the

The Mayor is setting ratepayers up for massive, and previously unthinkable rate increases, if the Council decides to forge ahead without Government support and without any funding other than more borrowing to cover the Councils cost.

For four years the Mayor has been promising to produce a funding programme for the CRL, but so far not a dollar has been fund – except for the $163m already spent from borrowings the ratepayers will ultimately have to repay even if the CRL is never built.

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