March 07, 2024
Commenting on the Government's repeal of the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson, Sam Warren, said:
"This will be welcome news for Aucklanders struggling with fuel costs once this comes into effect on June 30."
"It's encouraging that the remaining unspent funds are to be ring-fenced and put into infrastructure projects like the Eastern Busway, City Rail Link and road-corridor improvements."
"The issue now remains for Auckland Transport to focus on sufficient roading maintenance – rather than wasteful spending on back-office bureaucracy and unpopular pet projects."
February 29, 2024
According to information obtained under the Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIMA), the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance can reveal that Watercare has spent over $3,500,000 creating and marketing an app that measures smart-meters across Auckland.
Watercare has spent $3,335,521 on development, $29,747 on marketing and yearly maintenance of $213,000. Furthering this, of the 540,000 dwellings of Auckland, only 44,246 smart-meters have been installed by December. The use of $500 gift card prizes, social media ads and other artworks had only seen 56,681 downloads up to December 2023.
Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance spokesperson Sam Warren said:
“While people in other areas worry about running out of water, Watercare is spending millions on developing and advertising a smart-meter app that only 10% of Aucklanders can use. Already this year Auckland Council is having to loan $130 million to bailout the organisation after storms, a sewer collapse and rising costs.”
“With a yearly maintenance cost of over $200,000, spending on the app should be paused and focus must return to fixing leaks, replacing pipes and installing meters. Only then can the app return at a higher uptake at a time that makes sense.”
February 29, 2024
According to information obtained under the local government official information act the ratepayers alliance can reveal that Auckland transport has spent $150,000 on a 47 day campaign to inform Aucklanders why 400km of roadworks was occurring at the peak of summer.
Auckland Ratepayers Alliance Spokesman Jordan Williams said:
“The work of Auckland Transport is out of touch with ratepayers expectations of how its work should be advertised. Creating an entire “Summer Road Reno” programme was meant to ask for courtesy to road workers but came across wasteful and arrogant.
Billboards across 17 locations and online graphics used puns such as:
“While you’re going fishing, we’re road fixing.”
“While you’re working on tan lines, we’re paining road lines.”
At a cost of $105,022 on advertising and $44,978 on creative development including a new logo didn’t create respectful drivers while waiting in these roadworks. Auckland Council needs to set clear advertising standards to prevent costly, ineffective mistakes across its council controlled organisations.
February 19, 2024
Wayne Brown rates shocker – proposals include 38% rates hike
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance will go to war with Wayne Brown unless he backs down on putting an option to councillors to increase rates by 37.94% over three years, as contained in the Mayoral options in the proposed consultation document to the Council Long-Term Plan (10-year budget) to be presented to councillors tomorrow morning to vote on whether to put out for public consultation.
Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance Spokesman Jordan Williams said:
“Clearly Wayne Brown has been strong armed by Council officials, left wing councillors, or both. How can a Mayor who ran on a platform of fiscal restraint now propose rate hikes of up to 38% over three years? That’s an extra that’s $1,371 in rates for the average Auckland homeowners. This isn’t a u-turn, it’s an orbit of the moon.”
"Even the Mayor’s preferred ‘core option’ – 20 percent over three years – is outrageous. Wayne Brown was elected to rein in Council waste and redirect spending into higher priorities such as infrastructure investment. The Mayor proposes no such thing, rather reaching deeper into ratepayers' pockets at the time they least afford it."
“Not even in Len Brown’s dreams did he propose rate hikes as large as this. Mr Brown is putting before councillors an option to write wasteful officials a blank cheque.”
February 09, 2024
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is slamming Auckland Transport boss Dean Kimpton for his failure to front and answer questions about the Meola Road omnishambles, despite being paid considerably more than the Prime Minister and AT spending $5million a year on communications.
Responding to this morning’s reporting in the NZ Herald, Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesman, Jordan Williams, said:
“While Mayor is trying to defend the Auckland fuel tax to fund Auckland Transport, yet again AT officials are letting him down.”
“Under Dean Kimton, AT continues to show contempt for the public, and public money. AT spends $18 million a year on marketing, and another $5 million on communications. Yet they still won't front to answer questions from the City's major newspaper.”
"It seems that rather than ‘communications’, Auckland Transport is spending millions to hide its CEO from the media."
“Mayor Brown is right in his comments last week that the management at AT ‘have lost the plot’. There needs to be a wholesale clear out of personnel and culture.”
February 08, 2024
Responding to news that the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax will be coming to an end in June 2024, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance Spokesman, Jordan Williams, said:
“The regional fuel tax never would’ve been needed if Auckland Transport focussed on investing in the supercity’s roads rather than wasting money on backroom bureaucrats and unpopular pet projects like cycleways.
“Given the hundreds of millions in the Regional Fuel Tax slush fund that are still sitting unspent, the state of Auckland’s infrastructure clearly is not a cash issue; it’s an issue of council and AT staff who are failing to deliver.
“The focus now needs to be getting Auckland Transport up to snuff. The priority must be making sure that any replacement for the regional fuel tax down the line doesn’t end up as yet another way to fund council waste by reaching deeper and deeper into Aucklanders’ pockets.”
December 04, 2023
Spokesperson for the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance, Jordan Williams, has expressed scathing criticism regarding the recent developments surrounding the City Rail Link project. Williams says:
“The City Rail Link project has become a symbol of financial incompetence. Even if the 8% rates rise went through, it would take the annual rates of approximately 72,108 ratepayers just to cover its $220 million running costs. For just a few kilometres of track, the magnitude of fiscal irresponsibility and ineptitude is staggering. Auckland Transport and the planners of the CRL have flagrantly disregarded the hard-earned money of Auckland’s ratepayers at a time when many are struggling with the cost-of-living.
We urgently call on Mayor Wayne Brown to take decisive action. This isn’t merely about fixing a financial error; it's about reinstating the public's confidence in our city's leadership. Mayor Brown must spearhead a thorough investigation into this fiasco, ensuring that those responsible are held to account. We cannot allow the public purse to be so blatantly misused. It's time for our city's leaders to prioritise the interests of the ratepayers, initiating much-needed reforms in our approach to the city's development."
December 01, 2023
Commenting on proposals to reduce Auckland’s refuse collection from weekly to fortnightly, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesman, Jordan Williams, said:
“Auckland Council’s finances are in dire straits, and clearly serious savings need to be found quickly. But it is ridiculous that the council’s first port of call is attacking core services like waste collection.
“Why is the council cutting back on waste collection of all things when it spent $114 million just last year alone on consultants and contractors? Why are ratepayers not getting the service they already pay well over the odds for whilst there’s still 70 spin doctors on the council books, all earning over $100,000 on average?
“Auckland’s net-debt-to-rates-income ratio of 525% is far and away the worst in the country, and unsustainable levels of spending need to be slashed. But Mayor Brown needs to ditch the wasteful back-office pencil-pushers, not frontline staff and vital services.”
November 15, 2023
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance (ARA) is slamming Mayor Wayne Brown’s congestion charge proposal, denouncing it as a revenue grab if fuel excise taxes aren’t reduced by an equivalent amount.
ARA Spokesperson, Jordan Williams, said:
“Adding a congestion charge will simply impose another tax on already struggling families, a move that will be especially punishing for those with fixed work hours or with school children.
“Any attempt to frame this as a tax switch with the Regional Fuel Tax is laughable. That tax would be unnecessary if Auckland Transport focused on spending its money on maintaining roads, rather than on backroom bureaucrats and ideological projects.
“The Regional Fuel Tax is already slated to be scrapped; the consideration of a tax switch should occur only after that change has been implemented.
“The purpose of a congestion charge is to shift more road use to off-peak times. If this is Mayor Brown’s goal, he must ensure that the central government reduces fuel excise to avoid punishing those without alternatives.”
October 02, 2023
Responding to Mayor Wayne Brown’s warning of a more than 13% rates increase for Auckland residents next year, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesman, Jordan Williams, said:
“Years of Auckland Council’s wasteful spending and project mismanagement have seen the Council’s budget hole skyrocket over recent years, but that doesn’t mean ratepayers should be left out to dry so that the council can continue its endless splurging.
“Auckland Council had the opportunity earlier this year sell their airport shares and pay down debt to prevent a rate increase above inflation. Instead, by only agreeing to a partial sale of the shares, the Council has left ratepayers with higher rates and millions of dollars of un-serviced debt.
“Now isn’t the time for councillors to cling on to the nice-to-haves and kick the debt burden down the road. Every cost-saving option should be on the table - including sale of the remaining airport shares - and tough decisions must be made now to ensure that ratepayers aren’t burdened by crushing rate hikes for years to come.
“Councillors who are currently unwilling to make the necessary cuts to expenditure need to take their head out the sand and realise the magnitude of the issues being faced by Auckland residents during this cost of living crisis."
