The Campaign For Better Transport

Our submission on the Land Transport Management Act Amendment Bill is here.

Our biggest concern is that this bill repeals any chance of a regional fuel tax for Auckland:

There is absolutely no need for the regional fuel tax provisions to be removed as the government already has the ability to say no to a scheme (or to even cancel a scheme already in place). The stated rationale for repeal is that “This will avoid the likely costs of such a tax in a single region being spread across all regions within our nationwide fuel market, and will ensure that the additional costs of a refund system for non-transport fuel use are not imposed on productive areas of the economy.”

A report by Ascari and BERL Economics contained in the Auckland Council Transport Committee agenda for August 2012 rebuts these arguments with the following findings: The imposition of a regional fuel tax now would be much less likely to result in price spreading to other regions. There are ways to address spreading such as penalties and a targeted monitoring programme. Avoidance of a regional fuel tax by consumers is likely to be a minor issue. Administration of a regional fuel tax at the wholesale level would be straightforward. If a regional fuel tax is imposed at the retail level, the administration costs are likely to be significantly lower than previously identified. The costs to commercial operators seeking a refund are estimated to be between $25 and $50 per firm and could be minimised further. The spatial form and vehicle travel patterns in Auckland are both well matched to the requirements of an effective regional fuel tax.

It is our belief that central Government simply wishes to deny local councils any ability to raise revenue from alternative funding sources, without any solid rationale for doing so. It would be in the best interests of central Government and the economy in general to work with local councils, in particular Auckland Council, to discuss this issue in a meaningful way.

There is an excellent summary of the bill here on Transport Blog.

The Herald reports that it looks most likely that ratepayers will be picking up the funding shortfall created by the axing of the regional fuel tax:

Money has been assured for new Auckland railway stations, but at extra cost to ratepayers, after the Government’s cancellation of a regional fuel tax for motorists.

An integrated public transport ticketing project will also be scaled back under Auckland Regional Council budget decisions made yesterday.

Although regional rates will be held to an average 3.93 per cent next year, as originally programmed, the council has approved a revised 10-year funding plan including annual rises of up to 6.73 per cent by 2014. Its new schedule would lift the average rates bill from $336.79 this year to $350.03 next year.

Chairman Mike Lee acknowledged a council-imposed rates rise ceiling of no more than 5 per cent honoured since 2005 would be breached in three of the next 10 years, from 2013 to 2015.

He acknowledged that the budget commitments would be inherited next year by the new Auckland Council, at which point he said their impact on overall rates would be “fairly minimal”, equating to annual rises of under 1 per cent.

Although the council made an assumption in March that it would have to hand control of most of the stations to the Government to overcome a $202 million funding hole left by the aborted fuel tax, chief executive Peter Winder yesterday disclosed compromises to avert that. These followed agreement by the Transport Agency to:

• Pay a 60 per cent subsidy for new railway stations including at Newmarket, New Lynn, Manukau, Onehunga, Grafton and Avondale.
• Make a $5 million grant towards costs already incurred by the council on Newmarket Station.
• Lend the council $32.8 million over four years to pay for six new six-car diesel trains already on order from KiwiRail until the Government buys electric rolling stock.

Mr Winder said those concessions would still close only 22 per cent of the funding gap… [more]

If one thing annoys me more than anything else in all the transport announcements we’ve seen over the past week or two – removal of the regional petrol tax, creation of a national petrol tax, news the government will pay for Auckland’s new electric trains, unsurprising news that the government is investing billions in state highways at the cost of everything else – it has been what has happened to Auckland’s integrated ticketing project. Regional petrol tax dollars were critical for funding this project and – unlike electrification – there has still been no word as to how the $100 million or so needed for implementing integrated ticketing will be provided. Furthermore, today we learn that awarding the contract for the development of an integrated, smart-card, ticketing system has been delayed. Well, on the positive side, at least it hasn’t been cancelled. It’s still damn frustrating though.

So, what’s up with this whole “integrated ticketing” thing that everyone seems to talk about? Why is it deemed to be so critical? Why is it so expensive? Why has it taken so long? These are all pretty good questions that do deserve and answer and some further discussion.

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