Rates are going up 7.9% next year. Which let's be honest, is like Woolworths selling butter for $7.99.
It's 8%. Wayne Brown is the 8% man.
Mr Fix it is hitting us in the pocket, and it will hurt.
An extra $320 for your average ratepayer. The average goes from $4,055 to $4,375.
If we didn't have to subside the City Rail Link's operations, it'd be 0%.
Now, usually, something like this would get me a bit angry. I'd be tempted to go tag the side of a locomotive in the middle of the night with a cartoon of Wayno saying some like "Let's F Auckland". Just remove the ix from his campaign slogan.
I don't generally use public transport because it's not convenient for me to do so. It's a timing and location issue, really.
But if we don't subsidise the users, then it won't get used. If it doesn't get used, then roads will stay clogged. If roads stay clogged, that's time and money down the drain.
If the thing does what it says on the label —and we haven't actually seen that yet because the bloody thing hasn't opened— it'll be worth the extra $300 a year to me via other gains.
This might be naïve or a touch too hopeful, but if this thing works then I don't mind paying the train tax.
Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.
1 comment:
Hardly cutting commentary, epitomized by the closing '..if this thing works then I don't mind paying the train tax.' That's a big IF for a train line that runs from somewhere not many people live to somewhere no-one wants to go. No matter how you slice or dice this, the rail project was an unmitigated disaster that Auckland ratepayers will carry like an albatross around their collective necks into perpetuity. The extreme deleterious impact of the associated works on the central city (Albert Street and K Road in particular) spanning over many years adds further insult to this injury. Sadly just another NZ city run by fools, now in terminal decline as a consequence.
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