“No new taxes” is an appealing mantra, and one of a current Party’s centrepiece of its re-election campaign.
Some local government members find that mantra somewhat surprising, given the many administrative costs central government imposes on district and regional councils.
For South Wairarapa District Council, the latest “no new tax” amounts to a mere five percent of the annual cost of keeping Cape Palliser Road operating.
Until now, New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has paid the full bill for what it classified as a Special Purpose Road. Then it suddenly removed its own classification and advised (or “confirmed”) to council that “it will fund Cape Palliser Road at 95% until June 2030,” SWDC said in a statement early last month. So the 100 percent funding for Palliser Road has gone. The Special Purpose Road designation has been “disestablished,” and with it the end of full central government funding for the road’s upkeep.
That designation — and the full funding — has been in place for 29 years, since 1997.
What changed over that time?
Some would say central government policy, allowing more cost imposed and cost recovery from users in local government areas such as water services and road use. Road User Charges (RUCs) are a case in point, with EVs (electric vehicles) paying them for the past two years and fossilfuel users about to be added.
The Palliser Road redesignation also adds five percent to the central government tax bill it sends to South Wairarapa residents and ratepayers for the next three years — and there is no indication of central government intentions beyond mid2030. For any of the country’s former Special Purpose roads.
The bills for general roads are also shared: central government 51 percent, local government 49 percent. No policy change has been signalled there, apart from the across the board imposition of RUCs on all road users. The fact that Cape Palliser Road “provides access to one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most iconic landscapes, important cultural heritage sites, local communities and popular visitor attractions,” as SWDC noted in its statement, seems to have been overlooked by the bureaucrats.
But SWDC is no doubt “grateful” that central government’s new tax imposed wasn’t much higher for its small base of ratepayers. Bring on amalgamation.
