Budget 2012: Taxpayer bill for AMI bailout halved

Photo / Natalie Slade

The taxpayer bill for the AMI Insurance bill has more than halved to just under $150 million in today's Budget.

Put at $500 million a year ago, the total sum put aside to cover the shortfall between AMI's Christchurch quake claims was reduced to $355 million in last October's Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update but was now likely to be $148 million, today's Budget documents reveal.

However the bill for Red Zone payouts to the owners of homes on land too damaged for rebuilding has gone up.

Put at a total of $867 million in the Prefu, the Budget now pushes that to just over $1 billion.

That figure is net of the money central government gets back from the Earthquake Commission and private insurers.

Once again, the forecasts for when the biggest chunk of the $5.5 billion Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Fund will be spent have been pushed back.

Last year the Government expected the 2010/2011 year would see the most expenditure at $2.8 billion. But the actual spending over that year and 2011/2012 combined witll be less than that. Spending only reaches its peak with $2.17 billion in 2013.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said new spending within the $5.5 billion recovery fund included $95 million over the next two years on Red Zone security and maintenance and an additional $30 million over the next four years for the Christchurch Central Development Unit which will manage the rebuilding of the city's central business district.