ARC backs new petrol tax to help public transport

Auckland Regional Council members defied their leader yesterday and decided to seek legislative power to impose a fuel tax to contribute to public transport.

But chairman Mike Lee was on firmer ground when the council's finance committee joined him in voting against any move towards a rate for commuter car-parking.

The committee decided to ask council officers to "actively pursue" a law change allowing a regional fuel tax to help to close a $700 million public transport gap over 10 years.

That is the shortfall between a council commitment of $1.6 billion from rates and income from assets such as the port company, and a request from its Auckland Regional Transport Authority subsidiary for $2.3 billion.

A long debate on the political sensitivity of imposing a new fuel tax did not include any indication of how much extra money motorists may be asked to pay Auckland service stations.

But a staff report estimated a yield of about $14 million for every cent of extra tax on a litre of petrol or diesel, and Pukekohe council member Dianne Glenn suggested the net be extended as far south as Mercer.

Ms Glenn said Mercer was a major fuelling point for motorists heading to Auckland, and had become the southern boundary of the regional council's area of responsibility for providing future public transport.

Regional councils were given power in 1993 to raise a petrol tax of 2c a litre for public transport, but that lapsed 2 years later.

The Auckland City Council collects a local government tax of 0.66c on behalf of other territorial authorities, amounting to about $7 million a year, but the regional council does not receive a share of that.

Ms Glenn was surprised to learn yesterday that this money was not specifically for transport purposes, although regional council chief executive Peter Winder noted that roading accounted for a large part of local authority spending.

The Government also last year increased petrol excise by 5c a litre, and road-user charges for diesel vehicles by a similar amount, giving the money to regions for transport spending.

But much of the more than $200 million a year raised this way has gone towards fully Government-funded state highways rather than public transport, for which regional councils have to find matching money from ratepayers or other local sources.

Mr Lee opposed the regional fuel tax and the car-parking levy, saying the council should concentrate on gaining greater cost efficiencies such as from hefty bus company profits "before dragging more money out of the pockets of ratepayers and the commuting working person".

He noted that the council had already asked the Government for the right to levy property developers for new public transport capital spending, a matter still being considered by the Government.

But finance committee chairwoman Wyn Hoadley said a ratepayers' revolt which led to the election defeat of several councillors in 2004 showed the risk of relying too heavily on rates for revenue.

"Aucklanders have told us they support better public transport and have told us quite clearly they do not want the money to come from rates, so we have to put our thinking caps on," she said.

Transport policy committee chairman Joel Cayford said he supported the fuel tax and parking rate in an "exacerbater pays" approach to paying for public transport.

A parking levy should be considered as part of a "carrot and stick" approach to combating congestion.