Sayers Whistle Blows: Fuel Tax Rip Off

Have you wondered why Auckland’s roads look patchy and seemingly not that well maintained? Even sealed roads are falling apart at different locations around the district. Have you ever wondered to yourself if that is the roading contractor’s quality of workmanship, or if it was a case of not enough money being spent?

The unequivocal answer was given by Auckland Transport’s Chief Executive Officer to the Mayor and Councillors last month. In an unmistakable plea, he said Auckland Council was choking the required financing required to renew and maintain Auckland’s roading network.
He explained since the start of the Super City existing repairs were having to be withheld when they were due because inadequate funding was being allocated.

Auckland Transport said it was indisputable that roads were deteriorating and effectively going backwards. The situation was critical and the problem was now clearly visible to residents, ratepayers and visitors across Auckland.

To be clear, Auckland Transport maintains all the roads, except for SH16, SH1, etc. The State Highways are maintained by central government’s NZTA organisation.

However, for years Auckland Transport has requested a budget of $420 million per annum. Auckland Transport explained they were consistently only being allocated $170 million per annum by Auckland Council. I understand Rodney has been receiving $1.2 million of that. The shortfall is staggering and goes a long way to explaining why roading contractors are forced to often carry out minimal low-quality repairs.

So while Auckland is merrily spending $1.1 billion a year on building new glossy transport projects, how to maintain existing roads, without significantly hiking rates, has proven to be Council’s Achilles heel.

It was in 2018 when the Auckland Council introduced an additional tax on Aucklander’s called the Regional Fuel Tax. This was to improve the transport infrastructure.

Last year Auckland Council received $129 million from the fuel tax but only spent $89 million of it citing there was the need to carry out planning work before spending the money.

This year Auckland Council received $148m and spent even less at $79m, so what’s happened to the unspent $109 million?
Ratepayers may be shocked to learn the Council can, in turn, use the unspent transport money on its own daily operational expenses or for financing its ballooning debt.

When my investigations uncovered these inconvenient facts I was so outraged I whistle blew the figures to the Auditor General. The Auditor-General acknowledged my concerns about the inequity of such an approach by Auckland Council but said it was not illegal.

Surely such an accounting practice is wrong and all Regional Fuel Tax money should be spent on transport-related projects now?
Our roading problems are real now! The issues are well known, along with the fact that $150m pa is being collected – so why the delay?
If the standard of roading is to improve then fuel taxes need to be used the way the public was promised to solve today’s issues, not in 5, 7, or 10 years from now. I will continue to pursue this on the public’s behalf.

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